What is it about this little game that’s so addictive? Why is my Facebook news reel littered with Bejeweled Blitz score posts with the caption titles “I want my life back!” and “Where did the last two hours go?”?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it has something to do with bright colours and fun sound effects. Not to mention the voice that encourages you during solo gaming, “INCREDIBLE!” Maybe this is all an effect of our collective short attention span, but with the new Blitz version of the game they’ve taken it a step further. Now there are leader boards and progress graphs so you can track how much better, or worse, of a bejeweler you are than your friends.

I’m not saying that Bejewled is on the same level as really addictive games like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XI, which both sport in-game reminders that there exists a real world outside of the online fiction. But those games are persistent online worlds geared towards serious gamers who invest time and money into the characters they’re playing. Bejeweled appeals to all markets, casual to pro, and can be just as intense for some.

Still, why is it so addictive? “I want my life back!”

Read the far more interesting full article by Chris Jacob at GIZMODO.com. While you do that, I’m gonna go download DOOM and destroy my phone’s battery life.

In recent days an email went out to the IGDA membership discussing the seat of Tim Langdell on the association’s board of directors. The email cites Mr. Langdell’s trademark of the word “edge” and his, and his company Edge Games, leveraging “this trademark against any media that contains this word—threatening legal action should their target not enter into a licensing arrangement with the studio.” It goes on to inform the recipient that “under the IGDA by-laws, we are able to call for a special meeting of the membership to vote on the removal of Tim Langdell from the board of directors” and prompts them to follow a link to an online petition.

For those of you unaware of who or what the IGDA is, the International Game Developers Association is an independent non-profit advocacy organisation serving the people in the video game industry. The association’s mission is “to advance the careers and enhance the lives of game developers by connecting members with their peers, promoting professional development, and advocating on issues that affect the developer community.” In short the IGDA is to video games as AIGA is to graphic design.

Further, for those unaware of the background behind the trademark war being fought (on all fronts) by Tim Langdell and Edge Games suffice it to say they are behind some of the most unfortunate and inane trademark lawsuits in the entertainment industry in recent memory. In one of the more high profile confrontations, Mr. Langdell is behind the recent removal of the wildly popular game “EDGE” (Mobigame) from the iTunes App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. Trademark infringement lawsuits have also been brought against Sony Pictures Entertainment, Electronic Arts Games, and NAMCO, among many others.

What’s important, and surprising, about this email, indeed what is important about the message presented is that it is false. In fact, the IGDA has no policy governing the calling of special membership meetings by regular members—though the co-chairs may call these meetings. Shortly after the original message was sent an official email from the IGDA Executive Director, Joshua Caulfield, was sent to the membership stating that the original message “was [from a] spoofed [IGDA email address] and the communication was not an official IGDA communication” and that the IGDA was “not responsible” for the content of the message. A slightly disheartening—and worrying from a privacy standpoint—notion being that there’s such an air of confusion and consternation surrounding Tim Langdell’s position on the advocacy association’s board, but there is good news.

Yesterday, 7 August 2009, yet another message was sent out from the IGDA, this time by Co-Chair Tobi Saulnier. This most recent email announced a move by the board of directors and the co-chairs to call a special membership meeting. It further states that a committee, or “taskforce,” has been empanelled to develop governing policies for such a meeting so as to better deal with the issue brought up by the spoofed email—that of Tim Langdell’s position on the IGDA Board of Directors, and his alleged misuse thereof.

This is an amazing example of reactive politics, and in this instance such a reaction is actually a good thing. Many in the industry, both in production rolls and consumer rolls, are quite off put by Mr. Langdell’s position on the board and have been concerned with the lack of action or position by the IGDA towards the lawsuits he and his company have introduced. While brought about by dubious, perhaps less-than-legal methods, the reaction of the board and co-chairs to this call for action is certainly a light in the dark.

You can read more about Edge Games, Tim Langell, and even the game “EDGE” here: KOTAKU.com ]]> http://cleanupafteryourdog.com/2009/08/bogus-email-prompts-igda-to-consult-membership-about-issue/feed/ 0 http://cleanupafteryourdog.com/2009/07/gameplay-isnt-everything-dyack/ http://cleanupafteryourdog.com/2009/07/gameplay-isnt-everything-dyack/#comments Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:23:16 +0000 Kevin http://cleanupafteryourdog.com/?p=151

“Gameplay is not everything,” said Silicon Knights (Eternal Darkness) founder and president Denis Dyack. “If you look at the most popular games today, they are far more narrative-focused.”

Dyack’s controversial message was delivered during a talk at Brighton, UK’s Develop Conference calling for games to be considered as “the Eighth Art.” He highlighted the writings of Ricciotto Canudo, an Italian author and one of the first theorists of film who considered cinema to be the Seventh Art.

“That video games are art is quite obvious to me,” he continued. “The new synthesis is interactivity and gameplay. Instead of moving pictures, that which movies brought to art, we now have interactivity as the glue that brings together all the previous artistic elements.”

Read that again. “That video games are art is quite obvious to me [...] we now have interactivity as the glue that brings together all the previous artistic elements.” Yeah, Dyack summarises it perfectly there. This is something that’s been hotly debated for a long time in the gaming world, “are video games art.” And while I’ve been a fan of Silicon Knights for a while, Denis Dyack just scored innumerable points with me personally. But I digress, read the full Gamasutra interview with Denis Dyack here.

Now there’s speculation all up and down this rumour because SCEA has denied they are planning to drop the console’s price. And there’s reason to listen to them on this one because the 40gig PS3 option has done better in the market than anyone thought it was going to (given its limitations). However, the last time the cut the price of the PS3 they maintained that it was just a terrible rumour up to the day the price dropped. Sooooooo…. there ya go!

You can read more about this over at Gamasutra’s article.

I was rather excited when I’d heard there would be a Wii channel from which you could download DS games and demos. Such a channel would be BRILLIANT in terms of game availability and access. All they’d have to do is plug in some cheesy credit system or a billing system (much like iTunes uses) and the company could pull in more money than they’d spend producing the physical copies for store shelves.

But… it’s not true.

Nintendo of America peeps negated the earlier report about such awesomeness. Yes, demos will still be available for download (which will be automatically erased when your DS gets powered down), but not full games (which would have to have been written to a blank SD card on download).

You’re missing out on a good idea, Nintendo.