OSCAR goes to:
Written on 12:19 PM by waratxe
CIBERIA
Written on 2:13 PM by waratxe
http://www.rushkoff.com/downloadables/cyberiabook/
leelo en monitor.
saludos.
r.-()
LINZIE HUNTER art
Written on 6:33 PM by waratxe
1. hacer una ilustración
2. Con tipografia hecha a mano como las de Linzie Hunter
3. Con lo que les llegue de un SPAM.
4. Suban la foto en algún lado (su blog, facebook, etc) y posteen el link.
con la imagen.
para el jueves 12
---
Linzie Hunter cada vez que recibe un spam en la bandeja de entrada de su mail, en vez de borrarlo como todos nosotros lo convierte en bellas piezas tipográficas hechas a mano. Realmente original.
Between you and me :)
Written on 4:49 PM by waratxe
Leer y comentar:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/fashion/29emoticon.html
LO BUENO DE LA TECNOLOGÍA ?
Written on 10:42 AM by waratxe
Posted in
bueno,
tecnología
| 23
comments
BIBLIOGRAFíA
Written on 7:41 PM by waratxe
• KAMP, David. The Rock Snob´s Dictionary. - 1era Ed. - EUA, Editorial Broadway, 2005, 149 pags.- ISBN 0-7679-1873-8
• MC. LUHAN, M, El medio es el masaje, 1era Ed.- España,Paidós, 1988, 167 págs. – ISBN 84-7509-015-X
• VERDU, Vicente, El estilo del mundo, 2da Ed.- Barcelona, Anagrama, 2006, 294 págs. – ISBN 84-339-7256-1
• YEHYA, Naief, Tecnocultura, 1era Ed..- México, Tusquets Editores, 2008, 238 págs. – ISNB 978-607-421-011-8
• C. APRILE, Orlando, La publicidad puesta al día, 1era Ed. – Buenos Aires, La Crujia, 2003, 232 págs. – ISBN 987-1004-32
• JENKINS, Henry.- Fans, Bloggers and Gamers. - 1era Ed. - EUA, New York University, 2006, 279 págs. – ISBN 0-8147-4284-X
• T.L., Taylor, Play Between worlds. – 1era Ed.- London, MIT Press Books, 2006, 197 págs.- ISBN 0-262-20163-1
• TEJEDA, Juan Guillermo, Diccionario crítico del diseño.- 1era Ed. – España, Paidós, 2006, 274 págs.- ISBN 84-493-1920-X
• FERNANDEZ, Bef Bernardo, Ladrón de sueños.- 1era Ed.- México, Almadía, 2008, 216 págs.- ISBN 978-970-985-443-5
• KELMAN, Nic, Video Game Art.- 1era Ed. - New York, Assouline, 2005, 319 págs.- ISBN 2-84323-729-7
Bitácora de Navegación
Written on 3:16 PM by waratxe
Comunicación & Tecnología
- Qué carajos es la tecnología
- Tecnología y cibercultura
- Tecnologías y ciencia ficción
- Tecnología y VGS
- Tecnología y música
- Tecnologías y ARTE
- Tecnología y Cuerpo
- Tecnología y Política
- Tecnología y periodismo
- Tecnología y television
- Tecnología y Entretenimiento
EVALUACiÓN
1 examen escrito: 20 %
3 trabajos en equipo: 20%
1 novela: 20%
Ejercicio de Cultura Mediática
Written on 11:39 AM by waratxe
Ejercicio:
Acabas de ser contratado como creativo y desarrollador de videojuegos para Rockstar (Estudio de desarrollo de juegos como GTA, tabletenis, bully y otros), empresa que desarrolla juegos para todas las consolas. Te piden que desarrolles un nuevo videojuego y te piden que entregues un primer borrador con algunas ideas. Tu jefe dice:
mira me gustaría que tenga que ver con los Beatles, Alfred Hitchcock, que aparezcan de alguna manera aves y .. ah sí.. que el personaje use un radio para algo y ya. suerte !
http://www.rockstargames.com/
Para tu primer borrador deberas ocupar los siguientes elementos desarrollo:
1. Historia (Narrativa)
Aquí se coloca una especie de sinópsis en donde se explica la narrativa y la historia que envuelve al juego. Etre 2 y 2 cuartillas aprox.
2. Diseño de Personajes
Descripción de personajes pincipales
Bocetos Gráficos de los personajes
Características
3. Género
Es decir, qué género (acción, aventura, estrategia, una mezcla, etc) de videojuego es y que características principales tiene.
4. Modo de juego
Especificar cómo funciona y que características tienen en acción los personajes
5. Música
Tipo de música, describirla y mostrar ejemplos y / o posibles autores
6. Cómo esperar provocar INMERSION en tus usuarios
AH ! cómo es tu primer proyecto y te quieren probar tendrás que seguir las siguientes reglas:
REGLAS:
1. NO PUEDE HABER VIOLENCIA EXPLICITA (verse sangre)
2. EL PERSONAJE PRINCIPAL TIENE QUE SER MUJER (los demás no importan)
3. EL MUNDO ESTA EN GUERRA
DESARROLLA ESTOS PUNTOS A PARTIR DE UNA IDEA ORIGINAL PARA EL NUEVO VIDEOJUEGO QUE TE PIDEN.
Elves Are Out, Aliens In
Written on 9:48 AM by waratxe
October 16, 2007
Video Games
Elves Are Out, Aliens In
By SETH SCHIESEL
Where have all the elves gone?
That’s the question gamers and the people who love them are bound to ask this fall as they take in the latest crop of big-budget video games. Since the 1970s, dragons, orcs, wizards and dwarfs have been staples of interactive entertainment, yet this holiday season there are hardly any top new games in the traditional fantasy mode.
Instead 2007 has been dominated by perhaps the deepest lineup of science fiction games ever.
It started in August with the sleeper hit BioShock, which can best be described as intelligent sci-fi noir (genetic engineering in 1940s big-band style). Then last month came the pop culture juggernaut Halo 3, the epitome of mainstream action sci-fi (men with huge guns saving the galaxy from an interstellar menace). Between now and Thanksgiving gamers will see gothic sci-fi in Hellgate: London (demons invade post-apocalyptic London); the first major science-fiction online game in years in Richard Garriott’s Tabula Rasa; and the magnum opus-cum-space opera Mass Effect.
Not floating in space yet? In a mash-up of gaming trends, the most anticipated PC shooter this fall, Crysis, lets players take aim at both aliens and North Koreans. Even many of the fall’s top child-friendly console games, like the latest Metroid, the new Ratchet & Clank and the coming Super Mario Galaxy, are set in a fanciful future.
The most obvious question is, Why the shift? But it may be more salient to ask why most video games are set in so few genres to begin with, and whether that’s changing. After all, most forms of entertainment draw consumers into an experience they could not actually have in life. That is as true of “Days of Our Lives,” the National Football League or “The Godfather” as it is of any video game.
The difference is that books, films and television shows are more often set in some approximation of the real, contemporary world. Yet many of the best video games take place in fantasy and science-fiction worlds meant to have as little in common with reality as possible. That may reflect games’ strengths and weaknesses as a storytelling medium.
The one thing that makes electronic games unique among entertainment media is choice, or agency. In a game the star of the show is the consumer, not a celebrity on a screen, stage or playing field. A gamer does not have merely to identify with the protagonist of someone’s else story; the gamer actually gets to become that alternative identity, if just for a while.
So, the thinking goes, that identity ought to be as alternative as possible.
“When you’re making a video game, you’re trying to give the player special experiences and abilities that go beyond the everyday as much as possible,” said Casey Hudson, project director for Mass Effect, a new science-fiction role-playing game to be released next month. “You want to be able to give somebody an experience where they can leave behind their everyday life.”
Or as put by Bill Roper, chief executive of Flagship Studios, which plans to release Hellgate: London later this month, “No one wants to play a game where they are a C.P.A. trying to figure out a deduction.”
Mr. Roper added: “As a John Grisham novel, the C.P.A. thing could work. His novels are intriguing, they’re great. But I don’t know if a John Grisham story could be a fun game.”
And that, quite neatly, is what video games have been so bad at. All the snazzy technology that has done so much to make gamers feel as if they are somewhere else has also done little to populate those fantastic virtual realities with the believable, nuanced story lines and characters that have been the lifeblood of linear drama since Homer.
In that sense, outlandish settings have long distracted players from noticing a dearth of old-fashioned storytelling.
“What we have not really gotten in games,” Mr. Hudson said, “which you do get when you watch a great television drama, is that as exciting as the setting may be, what’s really interesting are the people, the personal, human stories.” Naturally, Mr. Hudson and the rest of his team at BioWare hope to change that with Mass Effect.
Game makers have been employing more writers recently, hoping to improve storytelling. But perhaps even more interesting is how technology can allow stories to emerge where a game’s makers wrote none.
Consider the Sims, the family simulation series that has become wildly popular among elementary school and middle school girls. In the Sims, as with traditional dolls like Barbie, girls (mostly) create a virtual household and populate and furnish it to their liking. Then, using a combination of visual props and imagination, millions of Sims-playing girls, like their doll-playing mothers and grandmothers, set their own story on the “family” they have created.
As for the wave of science-fiction games this year, that is probably just cyclical. It generally takes at least three years to make a top-notch game. Look back at 2004: Elves were everywhere. The “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy had just concluded, and in gaming the very popular World of Warcraft fantasy was sweeping away the competition.
“There are a lot of ways in which World of Warcraft has influenced the game-making community, not just the game-playing community,” said Mr. Roper, who was formerly a senior developer at the company behind that game, Blizzard Entertainment. “It’s suicide to try to go head to head with World of Warcraft.”
So now instead of a gaggle of goblins, gamers this fall are being confronted with an army of aliens. Thanks to the latest graphics technology, almost all of those spacelings will be ready for their close-ups. Some may even come armed with more sophisticated, compelling stories than their ancestors.
And if you really love elves, don’t despair. With the way the game industry works, they will surely be back soon.
EXAMEN / CULTURA MEDIATICA
Written on 5:16 AM by waratxe
Ejerciciio:
Acabas de ser contratado para los Microsoft Studios, empresa que desarrolla juegos para el xbox 360. Te piden que desarrolles un nuevo videojuego y te piden que entregues un primer borrador con algunas ideas.
Para tu primer borrador deberas ocupar los siguientes elementos de anális o de desarrollo:
1. Historia (Narrativa)
2. Diseño de Personajes
3. Género
4. Modo de juego
5. Música
6. Remediación
7. Cómo esperar provocar INMERSION en tus usuarios
REGLA: NO PUEDE HABER VIOLENCIA EXPLICITA (verse sangre)
DESARROLLA ESTOS PUNTOS A PARTIR DE UNA IDEA ORIGINAL PAR EL NUEVO VIDEOJUEGO QUE TE PIDEN.
Una agencia de noticias real para el mundo virtual de Second Life
Written on 9:43 AM by waratxe
LA RELEVANCIA Y PENETRACIÓN QUE ADQUIEREN LOS VIDEOJUEGOS EN NUESTRAS VIDAS NOS PERMITE PENSAR EN CÓMO LAS FRONTERAS ENTRE LO LÚDICO Y LO REAL SE DESVANECEN, O MEJOR AÚN, NOS RECUERDAN QUE NUNCA EXISTIERON. EL CASO, ES QUE CADA UNO DE NOSOTROS TIENE LA POSIBILIDAD DE ELEGIR QUÉ TIPO DE EXPERIENCIA QUIERE TENER, QUÉ TAN PROFUNDO QUIERE LLEGAR Y EN DÓNDE SE RECONOCE MEJOR...
---------------------------
Reuters 'envía' a uno de sus reporteros a informar sobre los principales acontecimientos de uno de los juegos online de más éxito
Las oficinas de la agencia de noticias Reuters en el mundo virtual de Second Life.
Noticias del mundo real para el mundo virtual e informaciones sobre éste para los lectores tradicionales. Desde el próximo miércoles Adam Reuters informará a los más de 400.000 usuarios activos del juego online Second Life a través de un blog y un dispositivo portátil que los jugadores podrán llevar siempre encima.
Adam Reuters es el nombre que el periodista de la agencia de noticias británica Adam Pasik ha adoptado en Second Life, una especie de universo paralelo en tres dimensiones en el que participan internautas de todo el mundo. Más de 900.000 personas han accedido en alguna ocasión a este mundo virtual, en el que cada día se realizan transacciones económicas por valor de 350.000 dólares (cerca de 280.000 euros).
Esta cifra se alcanza gracias a la compraventa de bienes virtuales (desde propiedad inmobiliaria a pelo, vestifdo u órganos sexuales con los que mejorar la imagen virtual del jugador) y servicios, operaciones que se pagan en la moneda local, los dólares Linden. Éstos pueden convertirse después en dólares reales, por lo que el juego permite a sus usuarios obtener beneficios en el mundo real a través de sus actividades en el universo de Second Life.
El negocio crece a grandes pasos, alcanzando un volumen de 13 millones de dólares anuales, algo que no han dejado pasar las grandes compañías. Toyota, Sony BMG, Sun Microsystems, Reebook, Adiddas o CNET son algunas de las compaías que han abierto tienda en el juego o que informan sobre sus productos a través de él. La cadena de hoteles Starwood, por ejemplo, ha creado una versión virtual de una nueva gama de alojamientos que pretende abrir establecimientos en todo el mundo en 2008.
Sobre estas y otras actividades que se llevan a cabo en el juego informará Adam Pasick, que trabaja en la oficina londinense de Reuters. Las historias que Reuters ofrecerá a los jugadores abordarán la economía del mundo virtual creado por la compañía Linden Labs, pero también incluirán información sobre acontecimientos reales.
En Second Life Pasick jugará el papel del jefe de una redacción, alqgo que según afirma "no será muy diferente de ser un reportero en el mundo real (...), una vez que te acostumbras se parece mucho al trabajo que he estado haciendo durante años".
Con el lanzamiento de la agencia de noticias en Second Life Reuters pretende "formar parte de una nueva generación", según ha declarado el presidente ejecutivo de la compaía, Tom Glocer.
Reuters no aterrizará en todo caso en un mercado virgen, pues existen ya otros medios informativos en el universo virtual, como Metaverse Messenger, un semanario que tiene ya un año, además de los blogs de usuarios en los que se recogen sus actividades.
AGENCIAS / ELPAIS.es - Londres / Madrid
http://www.elpais.es/articulo/internet/agencia/noticias/real/mundo/virtual/Second/Life/elpportec/20061016elpepunet_3/Tes/
Metal Gear Solid para PS3, para Wii, para Hollywood… para todos
Written on 10:49 PM by waratxe
Por Andrés Monterrubio… “Monty”
Solid Snake, el épico protagonista de la serie Metal Gear Solid (MGS), se encuentra en una crisis de identidad a causa de los amoríos de su creador, Hideo Kojima; que después de casarse con el sofisticado Play Station 3 (PS3) y anunciar la exclusiva del MGS 4 para ese sistema, sacudió a los directivos de Sony al prestar los derechos del personaje al nuevo Super Smash Bros. Brawl, en donde podemos observar al héroe listo para entrarle a los jalones de greña con Mario y compañía en el nuevo Nintendo Wii, y a esto hay que añadirle que recientemente se firmó un contrato para llevar a Snake a la pantalla grande…
Los chismes y rumores ya comenzaron a correr, que Hugh Jackman interpretara a Snake, que New Line Cinema tiene los derechos y que el mismo Kojima la dirigirá… esto no es nada más que rumores, pues solo se ha mencionado que ya existe este contrato, pero no se dio más información, ni casa productora, director y mucho menos actores; lo único seguro es que Hideo Kojima observara muy de cerca la filiación, para evitar que su “hijo”, como el le llama, sea transformado en algo que traicione a los fans y a la misma historia original.
Por su parte, el MGS 4, promete ser el mejor juego de la serie (aparte de que se ha dicho que puede ser el ultimo juego de la saga), situados en un futuro apocalíptico, podremos ver a un Snake que ya dio el viejazo, pero no por eso es un anciano, pues aún se ve con la misma agilidad a la que nos tiene acostumbrados, y con un gran equipo que le cubre la espalda que, según se ve en el corto mostrado en la ultima E3, es el nuevo Fox Hound, con personajes como Meryl, Otacon, Roy Campbell, Naomi Hunter y un extraño Raiden vestido con un traje de ninja como que usara Gray Fox en el primer MGS.
Y en cuanto a las mejoras, tenemos una larga lista, pero quizás lo más interesante sea el nivel de realismo que pretende, pues se ha dicho que los signos de interrogación y exclamación sobre las cabezas de los enemigos, serán cosa del pasado, pues los rostros de los enemigos y sus movimientos corporales dejaran bien claras sus intenciones. Otro aspecto en el que se ha hecho hincapié es en el nuevo arsenal de Snake, pues la historia al ser situada en un futuro, da libertad a los diseñadores de crear cualquier cosa que se les ocurra.
Por otro lado, en entrevista con el sitio Computer and Videogames, el padre de MGS, afirma estar un tanto cansado de la presión alrededor del MGS 4, y estar muy emocionado con las ventajas que ofrece el Wii, “Me gustaría alejarme de la creación de MGS 4 y crear algo para Wii”, y aclaró la razón por la cual su personaje estrella, aparece en el Super Smash Bros. Brawl, “soy amigo del diseñador del juego y pensé que sería agradable si pudieras jugar como Snake”. Sin embargo la historia no acaba ahí, pues ya se ha anunciado que apenas termine de desarrollar MGS 4, se dedicará de tiempo completo a un nuevo proyecto que tiene para Wii, del cual solo se sabe que no formará parte de la saga de MGS, pero que podría ser algo aún mejor; pues por años Hiedeo Kojima ha dicho tener un videojuego en mente, pero que las limitaciones de las consolas no lo ha podido llevar a cabo; ¿será que el Wii si llena la expectativas?
¿Cómo saber si eres adicto a los videojuegos?
Written on 10:42 PM by waratxe
Por Andrés Monterrubio… “Monty”
Eh aquí un pequeño cuestionario que se usa en el Centro Nacional de Prevención de Adicciones, para diagnosticar a sus pacientes si son o no son adictos a los videojuegos.
Mientras más preguntas respondas de manera afirmativa, mayor tu grado de adicción.
1. ¿Viajas al menos una vez al año a la tierra de Hyrule?
2. ¿Sabes qué es un Goomba, un Koopa Troopa y un Para Troopa?
3. ¿El villano de tus pesadillas se llama Ganondorf?
4. ¿Haz ganado el Mundial, el Super Tazón, la Copa Davis, la Serie Mundial o la F1 desde la comodidad de tu hogar?
5. ¿Conociste a tu novia(o) jugando World of Warcraft?
6. ¿Haz volado al lado de Peppy Hare, Falco Lombardi y Slippy Toad?
7. ¿Sabes que significa MMORPG?
8. ¿Tu mascota vive dentro de un Nintendo DS?
9. ¿Sabes el nombre de la hermana de Mega Man?
10. ¿Aprendiste a manejar con Gran Turismo o Need for Speed?
11. ¿Cundo eras pequeño, no comias bien con tal de salvar al Mushroom Kingdom?
12. ¿Siempre soñaste con visitar Racoon City?
13. ¿Quieres ser parte de Fox Hound?
14. ¿Te has peleado con alguien a causa de la controversia del Blu-ray Disc?
15. ¿Quieres un tatuaje de la Trifuerza?
16. ¿Te casaste, te divorciaste y te volviste a casar sin problemas legales gracias al Fable?
17. ¿Haz visitado las principales ciudades del mundo de la mano de Tony Hawk?
18. ¿Alguna vez has fantaseado con Mai Shiraui o alguna otra chica de KoF?
19. ¿Derrotaste a Kintaro, Motaro y Shao Kahn ?
20. ¿Picas “_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ B A” en la pantalla principal?
LECTURAS para cultura mediatica
Written on 10:29 PM by waratxe
HOLA !
las lecturas mencionadas abajo, se deberán de leer para la clase de este lunes 9 de octubre.
en el BLOG:
1.Video Games Are Their Major, So Don't Call Them Slackers
2.gameboy en italiano
Para el miercoles 11 de octubre
COPIAS. las copias estarán:
edificio i / a nombre de ricardo farias / folder
1. Playing with fire
2. Playing with gaming
gameboy en italiano
Written on 3:09 PM by waratxe
langstabil - Pronto Luigi (Blanco/May) published by: MHz/Plate Lunch (4/2000)
"Gioco Bambino", the recent CD-release of the german duo "Klangstabil", includes 12 tracks of Gameboy electronics that
range from simple melodies that could easily be used as themes for childrens TV-series, to speedy, crackling, rumbling and noisy tracks. All of these tracks have been recorded directly onto DAT in realtime by using only a Nintendo Gameboy with an additional Gameboy Camera cartridge (which wasn't used to take pictures with, but as a primitive "mixing desk") and some simple effects. There are no samples, overdubs or additional instruments mixed to this recording later - all that you hear are the gameboy sounds recorded directly onto a DAT-recorder! About 70% of the tracks included are made by using only the gameboy and nothing else. The remaining 30% of the tracks are recorded while the gameboy has been connected with additional electronic equipment, but of course these tracks are recorded in realtime, too. "Gioco Bambino" - what means "game boy" in italian language - evolved out of the spontaneous idea to release a complete CD with pieces played on a Gameboy only. Receiving a track by "Klangstabil" that had been recorded this way, "plate lunch" was immediately fascinated by this idea and asked "Klangstabil" to do further experiments and recordings with the gameboy for a CD-release in co- operation with their label, which finally resulted in about 20 tracks that they recorded during April and November 1999 and of which the 12 most interesting ones found their way onto the "Gioco Bambino" CD. It's really exciting to listen to music that comes straight from the heart of a tiny gameboy. The german duo of "Klangstabil" was founded in late 1994 by Maurizio Blanco and Boris May. Amongst their releases are the brilliant "Böhm - Gott der Elektrik" LP from early 1997, that was released on their own "Megahertz" label. On this LP they used a self-converted "Böhmat", a rhythm-and effects-"instrument" which had its high time during the 50's and the 60's and that was originally intended to support organ-players with additional rhythms. "Klangstabil" showed that the "Böhmat" is much more than just a simple instrument for support, but that it deserves to play a main part next to other instruments with its astonishingly fresh sound, instead of being kind of a musical slave. Due to their 1998 LP-release "Sieg der Monochronisten" and an appearance on the 2-CD-compilation "Tekknoir" that has been released on the german "Hymen" label, a sub-label of "Ant Zen" - which recently released further tracks made with the gameboy as 12"-LP with the title "Sprite Storage Format" (the 500 copies sold out within two days from the label!) - "Klangstabil" have been labelled as "post-industrial"-outfit, but releases like the "Böhm" LP and their so far sole 7" - which both got enthusiastic reviews in the german "De:Bug" magazine for example - as well as the recent "Gioco Bambino"- CD show, that such labels don't do them justice. "Klangstabil" establish their own rules what results in releases that are fairly different to each other. Asked, how they would describe their music, they say that it's just "Klangstabil music" - what only shows their aversion against all kinds of labels. They do their very own thing - probably sitting between all chairs, as on one hand they're working with acoustic "Orff"-instruments - an project they realize with the help of children and to the other hand they record minimal, but harsh electronic pieces which definitely show influences by old school electronic/industrial artists like Conrad Schnitzler or Maurizio Bianchi/M.B., perfectly connected with their present sound experiments. Recently they performed some of their gameboy tracks on the "Mixer" Festival in Amsterdam, along with artists like V/VM, Saoulaterre, Gert-Jan Prins, Kapotte Muziek and others. Maurizio Blanco and Boris May will always have an open ear for interesting sounds - there's absolutely no doubt about it!
Is the Pen as Mighty as theJoystick?
Written on 3:05 PM by waratxe
Is the Pen as Mighty as theJoystick?
By MATT RICHTEL
Published: March 5, 2006
WHEN the package showed up last November at his house outside of Portland, Ore., David Hodgson initially felt a wave of great excitement. But that promptly gave way to foreboding.
Alan Weiner for The New York Times
David Hodgson has written 55 strategy books for video games. "It's like writing a travel guide to a place that doesn't exist," he said of his work.
Forum: Gaming
Enlarge This Image
Larry W. Smith for The New York Times
Beverly McClain bought about a dozen strategy guides last year, more than the number of novels she bought.
As soon as he opened the bundle, he realized that a clock had started ticking on a new assignment: he had four months to write a manual on how to extort, kill and otherwise take over a New York mob family. The task was particularly harrowing, in part because he wanted to make sure that his prose was well organized and clear.
Inside the package was an early copy of the much-anticipated Godfather video game that its maker, Electronic Arts, is scheduled to release later this month. Mr. Hodgson's job was to understand every facet of the game and to write a book advising players about how to win it.
For players of Godfather, which is based on Mario Puzo's novel and Francis Ford Coppola's movies, the goal is to rise from small-time hustler to boss of the Corleone crime family or, ultimately, all of the area's crime families. Doing so requires players to complete 17 missions, to attempt 20 assassinations and to bribe and extort dozens of merchants.
The game, like a growing number of others these days, takes place in a world where the players can move freely; it does not have the prescribed limits of, say, Pac-Man. And that creates special challenges for the author of a strategy guide.
"The first thing I thought was, 'I need a map,' " said Mr. Hodgson, 33, who spent the first part of his time getting to know New York and New Jersey, where the game is set. With help from the company, he also familiarized himself with a range of weapons, the best ways to blow up buildings and how to extort various characters. There are 50 to 60 ways to murder people in the game — from running them over with cars to garroting — and many ways to shake down a merchant.
After logging long hours trying various tactics, Mr. Hodgson said he asked the company whether he had explored them all, and which ones would help players rack up the highest scores.
Mr. Hodgson's name may not ring a bell, perhaps not even with most of his readers. But he is a best-selling author, one of a platoon of 25 or so professional authors turning out books — strategy guides for video games — that can sell hundreds of thousands of copies.
The guide for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, an intricate and violent action game, has sold 748,000 copies, an unusually high number, since it came out in 2004. Mr. Hodgson estimates that the 55 strategy guides he has written have sold a total of one million copies.
(By comparison, former President Bill Clinton's autobiography, "My Life," which came out in 2004, has sold 1.27 million copies, according to Nielsen BookScan; the hardcover edition of "My Life" was on the New York Times best-seller list for 28 weeks.)
Video games are not usually associated with reading, so the strategy guides' popularity is something of an oddity, marrying the fast-paced, fast-twitch world of computer and television console games with the tactile and ruminative experience of text-centric manuals.
In general, strategy guides are thick full-color books that tell players how best to solve puzzles, find and use weapons, discover hidden bounty and navigate complex and expansive virtual worlds — worlds that the writers are paid to deconstruct.
"It's like writing a travel guide to a place that doesn't exist," Mr. Hodgson said. "Whereas Frommer's guides tell you what hotel to stay in, I tell you which hotel not to stay in because you're going to get dragged down by a gangster."
BY most measures, strategy guides are not a huge business. They generated about $90 million in sales in 2004, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm; the figure dropped to $67 million in 2005, but that decline was expected as a cyclical moment, paralleling a transition in the industry to a new generation of advanced game consoles. If history is any guide, industry executives expect the transition to lead eventually to increased sales of games and strategy manuals.
The challenge for the industry's two biggest publishers — Prima Games, a division of Random House, and BradyGames, a subsidiary of Pearson — is how to capitalize on computer technology without being undone by it. In a world of virtual play, they want to prove that a physical book is the best, most effective sidekick.
To do so, these companies are fending off challenges from Internet publishers, both shoestring amateurs and well-financed professionals, that produce online guides. Ziff Davis, the publisher of PC Magazine and other consumer technology publications, plans to start a free game-focused Web site in March; among other things, it will offer video of people playing games, to show players how to solve challenges.
Among the books that are published by BradyGames are guides for navigating through the video games Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and World of WarCraft.
Forum: Gaming
"There's a lot of free content on the Web, and we've been battling it for years," Steve Escalante, director of marketing for BradyGames, said in an interview.
In competing with these free rivals, BradyGames, based in Indianapolis, and Prima, in Roseville, Calif., have the advantage of extensive cooperation from game makers, which provide full schematic diagrams, for example, for the games and images. In exchange, they pay a lump sum and a percentage of sales.
It seems to be working. Mr. Escalante said that despite the free online competition, "we continue to grow."
For those who use the guides, the efforts of Mr. Hodgson and other authors are worth more than the $15 to $20 they typically spend on the books. Indeed, while Mr. Hodgson has never met a woman named Chloe Brown, an avid video game player in Toronto, he has helped her keep her frustration in check.
"I once threw my controller into the wall and broke it" while playing an adventure game called Jade Empire, said Ms. Brown, 21. She was stuck at a certain point, she explained, and became frustrated because she couldn't figure out how to advance; after breaking her controller, she bought the game guide by Mr. Hodgson.
Generally, Ms. Brown and others who buy guides said they need help to cope with the growing complexity of games. In the days of simpler games, "you opened the door, smacked someone on the back of the head and walked out of the room," Ms. Brown said. "Now you have to peek into the doorway, creep into the room, create a disturbance, subdue someone: Are you going to kill them? Will you use a silencer? Or will you just knock them out?"
If you make the wrong move, she added, "you can go through the same process 5, 10 or 25 times before you realize 'this is what I'm supposed to do.' "
The guides give explicit counsel. One page in the manual for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, an adventure and shooting game set in World War II, even advises players to beware of French soldiers collaborating with the Nazis. "Follow Bloomfield up the stairs to the entrance of the hangar," it reads. "Shoot out the windows and use the windows as cover to fire down at the French. Watch out for the guys on the catwalk directly across from you; they can see and fire at you."
It adds, helpfully: "Be careful not to accidentally shoot your teammates."
Some players disdain the guides, which they say are less about strategy than taking shortcuts.
"They're good for people who don't like challenges," said Ibe Ozobia Jr., 32, of Las Vegas. "You don't have to think through the game. You can just look for the answers on the shelf."
Others, however, swear by them. Beverly McClain, 60, a retired clerical worker in Wichita, Kan., said: "Many gamers insist that the only way to play a game is to figure it all out for yourself. I say, buffalo chips."
Ms. McClain says she plays video games about five hours a night. As her taste in entertainment shifted from reading books to playing the games, she said, her purchases at bookstores also changed. She said she brought home about a dozen strategy guides last year, more than the number of novels she bought.
Ms. McClain tried to use free information provided online, she said, but it required her to print out dozens of pages of instructions, or to switch her computer screen back and forth between the game and the hints.
AS games have become more complex, guidebooks have grown longer. Debra Kempker, the president of Prima Games, said the average size of a guide for a console-based game is 176 pages, up from 128 pages in 2002.
The growing complexity means that Mr. Hodgson and other authors often cannot deconstruct the games without assistance. Mr. Hodgson says he typically receives ample help from the game designers for the eight guidebooks he is under contract to write each year for Prima Games — but not always. In 2003 and 2004, he said, designers at Atari were too busy to give him much help in writing a guidebook for its "Driv3r" game.
Despite such occasional problems, he says he considers his job a dream. While growing up in Manchester, England, where his father taught geography at a university and his mother taught German and French, he planned to become a history teacher. But he became interested in games — he found that his interest in detail and research was served by unlocking their virtual worlds.
In 1997, Mr. Hodgson wrote his first guide, for Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. Last year, he wrote guides for, among others, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II, Medal of Honor: European Assault, Half Life 2, Jade Empire, Burnout: Revenge, and Perfect Dark Zero.
He declined to say how much he is paid for each guide, but publishers say they generally pay authors $3,000 to $12,000 a book. For the Godfather guide, he wrote 175,000 words — the equivalent of nearly two novels — and said he talked daily to a designer who was laying out images from the game, tip boxes and other elements.
By the time he finishes a project, Mr. Hodgson said, he is sometimes so sick of the game that he hopes to never see it again, much less play it.
But he said he mostly loves the work, and even likes the relative anonymity of his authorship. Sometimes, it can be amusing. At the annual E3 trade show — the year's biggest gathering of video game companies — Mr. Hodgson's publisher placed him at a booth to sign copies of the strategy guides he had written.
"The most amusing thing is, some people will ask for a copy of the book and ask me not to sign it," Mr. Hodgson said, laughing. He doesn't fault them. "I'm not a proper author," he said. "I'm the redheaded stepchild of authors."
Acuden más de 30 mil personas a olimpiadas de videojuegos
Written on 3:02 PM by waratxe
Acuden más de 30 mil personas a olimpiadas de videojuegos
Los aficionados a los juegos electrónicos disfrutaron en pantallas gigantes los juegos cruciales de la competencia, mientras que la gran final fue transmitida por internet
Andrés Eloy Martínez Rojas
El Universal
Martes 22 de noviembre de 2005
14:51 Por muchos considerada las olimpiadas de los videojuegos, el World Cyber Games 2005, culminó este fin de semana en Singapur con la participación de 39 mil espectadores.
La competencia contó con 700 participantes provenientes de 67 países, quienes se disputaron 435 mil dólares durante dos días de concentrados combates de láser en 600 computadoras y 30 consolas Xbox, en las que se llevaron a cabo mil partidas, de acuerdo a la revista New Scientist.
Los aficionados a los juegos electrónicos disfrutaron en pantallas gigantes los juegos cruciales de la competencia, mientras que la gran final fue transmitida por internet.
Entre los participantes se encontraban jugadores de video juegos profesionales como Niklas Timmermann, de Alemania, quien jugo el juego de simulación de carreras de autos Need for Speed y Jihoon Seo, de Corea del Sur, quien mostró su destreza en el juego de estrategia StarCraft.
Durante el evento , 12 mil kilowatts de electricidad fueron utilizados en el International Conventional and Exhibition Center, sede de la competencia.
Olimpiada electrónica
Hank Jeong director de mercadotecnia del evento, aseguro que “con la sin precedente participación de espectadores y concursantes de todo el mundo este año, World Cyber Games ha verdaderamente evolucionado y se ha convertido en el equivalente de las Olimpiadas".
El score final favoreció a Estados Unidos, que se llevó la medalla de oro por juegos como CounterStrike y Halo 2, así como una medalla individual de plata por el juego de estrategia WarCraft III.
Estados Unidos fue seguido muy de cerca por Corea del Sur, que ganó dos medallas de oro y una de bronce, y de Brasil, que coleccionó una de oro y dos de plata.
Medallas individuales de oro se otorgaron a Alemania por el juego FIFA Soccer y a China por WarCraft III.
Los participantes en este torneo necesitaron tomar parte en competencias nacionales para ser elegidos para el máximo evento.
Éstos fueron los nueve videojuegos en los que se batieron los competidores fueron Counter Strike, FIFA Soccer 2005, Need for Speed, StarCraft, WarCraft III, Warhammer, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Halo 2 y Freestyle.
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