iGame Radio

Yesterday, shortly after the Apple September 1st Keynote event, I appeared on the MacJury to discuss and adjudicate the revelations Steve Jobs made. Hosted by Chuck Joiner, I appeared alongside Dave Hamilton of the Mac Geek Gab, Chuck LaTournou of Randomaccess, and Don McCallister of ScreenCastsOnline. We had great fun chatting up this content filled keynote and all the implications therein, including the importance of Apple streaming the thing. Yeah, every little detail is important. ;-)

I, of course, had a lot to say about Game Center, and the lack of information still provided in the keynote, what the new iPod Touch will mean to gaming (and Job’s comments about it being the #1 mobile gaming platform now), and the gaming possibilities that AppleTV 2.0 will represent.

Go, listen. It’s a fun-filled hour of Mac geeks chatting about their favorite subjects.

The Apple event today was all about the music, as could be inferred by the invite with the guitar in the background. But game treasure could be found all around if one knew where to look. Jobs gave us more information about Game Center, we saw a wonderful demo of an Epic Game in development on the new iPod Touch, and we discussed the possibilities about the new AppleTV.

First up was the announcement that iOS 4.1 would be released next week. Read more

Corey and I have waxed poetic numerous times on the used games industry, but recently Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software also had some words to chime in with. Regarding the quote of THQ’s Cory Ledesma (which Corey had some opinion on last week himself), Vogel found himself coming on the wrong side of the debate with the Penny Arcade folks who I saw, surprisingly, condemning the sale of used games.

Vogel makes a good argument that I’ve been thinking myself as well, regarding the application of the argument against used games to other used markets, such as the book market. Basically, the idea is that books, like games, are a vehicle for transmitting ideas and art. They are objects that you are allowed by law to sell or give away as you see fit. Being able to circulate these ideas freely, such as with used markets or libraries, is a good idea.

The argument regarding the used games industry really comes down to this, in my opinion. There are members of the game industry that feel that every single person who wants to play a game must buy a legitimate copy of that game from the original publisher/developer because not doing so is “taking money” from that publisher/developer. Which, by extension, means that everyone who enjoys playing a copy of the game that they did not buy is taking money out of the pocket of the publisher/developer…no matter what form they are enjoying it.

This includes coming over to a person’s house to play their game with them. This includes playing a game with your kids. This includes having multiple copies of the game on multiple computers in your house so that you aren’t having to purchase a copy for every single child. This includes LAN parties.

How can anyone engaging in these activities justify it if they hold that philosophy I mentioned above? By some definition, PAX itself is a Used Game-Playing Convention.

This type of thinking feels more to me like overwrought greed rather than justified alarm. No other industry seems to have such hand-wringing when it comes to used items. I mean, I don’t see the book publishing industry making libraries or the used book industry illegal. I don’t see the clothing industry making second-hand stores or hand-me-downs illegal.

Perhaps the Game Industry needs to rethink their fears.

Jeffrey Lin, a University of Washington PhD student, has been awarded the 2010 Penny Arcade Scholarship. The PAS is given yearly to college students interested in pursuing careers that contribute to the advancement of the game industry. Lin plans to use the award to further his research into applying vision science to solve practical problems in game design.

Lin impressed the selection committee with his interest in crossing traditional boundaries between game development and other academic disciplines. He plans to study how vision scientists can bring methods and insights developed in their field and apply them as members of game development teams.

One of his recent publications, entitled “Evidence against a speed limit in multiple-object tracking“, dealt with the theory that overcrowding in an environment lead to a decrease in the ability of a person to track multiple objects, so speed limits might increase crashes as people lost track of the multiple vehicles around them. Interesting idea to apply to a racing game!

Penny Arcade’s scholarship program was established in 2006. The annual winner is selected based on service, leadership, character, financial need and the potential to make a positive impact. Application information for the 2011 scholarship will be available in spring 2011.

The rumor of a possible replacement to the AppleTV set are running rampant, and everyone has their ideas. Today, Kevin Rose of Digg fame blogged about his theories regarding what we might see as early as September, stating that this is all going to change everything. But is it change that we can believe in?
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Splitfish Gameware has announced the FRAGFX Shark, a new power conserving precision mouse and FPS controller for the PS3, PC, and Mac. The FRAGFX Shark requires only a single AA battery in the split fragchuck and mouse that the company claims will provide 50+ hours of gaming time, with 500+ hours on standby. The FRAGFX Shark will be shown at Gamescom 2010, August 18-22.

Splitfish is providing full PC/Mac support, either as a gamepad or mouse/keyboard controller. You can play with the fragchuck even though the game is set for mouse/keyboard play. You can also dynamically program the motion and adjust the mouse sensitivity. There will be no firmware updates necessary, and the wireless technology works up to 2.4 GHz.

If you happen to be at Gamescom, you can check out the FRAGFX Shark and even play against International Call of Duty champ Dennis Dozier (zDD). A Teflon Hearts Team Leader and former #1 C.O.D. global leaderboard champ, Dennis will be taking on all challengers, trying to extend his tradeshow perfect record after leaving undefeated from E3 2010.

So, check out the show and check out the mouse and fragchuck (s’riosly, who comes up with these names??) and see if you can pwn the dude with the Alienware gear with your Mac Pro.

If you haven’t been hearing about the upcoming SCOTUS hearing regarding Schwarzenegger v. EMA (You know, where the government is trying to convince the courts that they should be telling parents how to parent their kids), you might want to get a primer about what this is all about. Moral Kombat is a video that explores the whole issue of violence in video games, by director Spencer Halpin (brother to ECA founder and president Hal Halpin).

From the movie’s website:

Moral Kombat takes a look into the controversial subject of violence in video games. Director Spencer Halpin shows the constant conflict between the game creators’ first amendment right to make a violent game and the eminent threat that violence poses on the next generation.

In addition, the film is full of the latest green screen and high-definition technology that allow watchers to actually envision the world of gaming. Filled with interviews from lead game designers, politicians, parents, and psychologists, this film provides a candid take on the influence games have on youth today.

It’s available for free now on Hulu, so you might want to watch it and be more informed.

Apple has announced today the new Mac Pro 12 core, to be released in August. Faster than any previous Mac Pro, you can go up to 3.6 GHz using six cores. This new machine will hold up to twelve cores of processing power, although you can custom configure it for as little as four. The machine holds up to eight TB of hard drive space, or a new option for Mac Pros…four 512 GB solid state drives. As for graphics, you can take the default ATI Radeon HD 5770, or upgrade to the ATI Radeon HD 5870, with dual support.

If all of that sounds incredibly top of the line, you’re right. This is meant to be a machine for professionals needing heavy duty graphics powerhouses for animation, 3D modeling, and motion graphics. And the price tag proves it. The Quad Core starts at just $2499, and the twelve-core tops out at $4999.

But is this a machine for the ultimate gamer? Let’s just do a comparison, shall we?

Alienware, the highest end PC game machine maker around, sells the Area 51 ALX right now for $3999. For that price, you get 3.86 GHz speed on an overclocked Intel i7 975 Extreme processor, and a choice of two ATI Radeon HD 5870 cards dual-linked through the ATI CrossFireX system, or two Nvidia GeForce GTX 295 cards dual-linked through the Nvidia SLI system.

The six-core Mac Pro, coming in August, doesn’t have an exact sales price, but considering that the quad-core is $2499, and the eight-core is $3499, the six-core will probably be $2999. This is the machine with the highest clocking speed of 3.60 GHz, on the new Intel Xeon “Westmore” processors. You also get a choice of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 or ATI Radeon HD 5870, with dual support only for the 5770. There’s no mention of Nvidia support, which is surprising and a bit disappointing.

The two machines, however, still seem pretty comparable, with the Mac Pro coming out just slightly slower and slightly lower in the graphics department with a bit decrease in the price department. The fact is that you probably won’t notice a difference between the two.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Snow Leopard can compare with Windows 7 in GPU support, because that’s where the future of graphics-based gaming is really at.

Aspyr Media has officially launched their European and UK GameAgent digital download platforms. To celebrate, they are offering 15% across the board on all digital download game sales. The sale lasts through July 28th, but unfortunately won’t include anything on MarketStream, so you won’t get the discount for any Civ for Mac games.

They have also opened up new forums as well, and are encouraging folks to participate. Right now a poll is ongoing about what old school Aspyr Mac port you want to see sent to digital.

Steve Jobs of Apple announced today that due to antenna issues on the iPhone 4, all iPhone 4 users would receive free bumper cases. Additionally, he outlined tests that Apple performed to determine the extent of the connectivity issues that were being claimed, as well as gave brief information on the release of the white iPhone 4 and availability of the device in other countries.
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