- .
- .
- .
- .
- .
Author Archive
Celebrity Guest Editorial: Ben Hoyt!
Well do I remember the first time I met Ben. I’d written an article semi-attacking Roger Ebert for, you know, being Roger Ebert. And Ben, who’d apparently been a fan of my column, forwarded it to the great man, who in turn wrote me directly, politely agreed to disagree, and CC’d Ben on the missive. Then Ben and I got into email and we had a chance to grab some breakfast together at that year’s Game Developer’s Conference. Since then we’ve made a point to get together at any conferences we’re collectively at; I at least have about 450 pounds of fun when we hang out. Ben started at High Voltage Software, (where he produced Duel Masters), and then to EA (where he served as design director for Def Jam: Icon) to Emergent (where he launched demos showcasing the company’s famous engine GameBryo) to Paramount (where he tried desperately to get Hollywood morons to understand the gaming business), finally to 47Games, where he belongs – which is to say, his own company, a consultancy that will soon hire me focused on maximizing the synergy between games and movies.
I mentioned Ben a couple posts ago, when I wrote about Deadly Premonition. And I meant what I said: never have I known anyone who can disassemble a game experience better. To put it another way, Ben knows what the fuck he is talking about. And while we don’t always agree, one of the many things I love about him is that we both share the slack-jawed glee of loving games, even when we hate them. Ben and I have never had the opportunity to do this, but we could sit at a table, drinking and eating, and talk about games for… hell, 20 hours at least before we lost interest. He’s a good friend and a kindred spirit. You should definitely check out his blog .
Today, he’d like to share with you his thoughts on Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, a game some of you might have heard of. Take it away, Ben!
Pardon Our Dust
As you may have gathered by nothing looking or working as once advertised, Tap-Repeatedly is undergoing a metamorphosis. Largely visual, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, we expect a whole rainbow of problems in the next several weeks. Should you encounter any particularly egregious issues, THEN TOUGH LUCK please email via the link below. Our regular programming will continue during this time.
Email the author of this post at admin@tap-repeatedly.com.
Do Not Be Alarmed
Over the next week or so, the gremlins who labor in the lowest depths of the Tap Repeatedly Missile Silo will be performing very routine breakings of the site, followed by standard frantic Skype calls and Staff Forum freakouts. Do not be alarmed by any of these events, which may include sudden visual changes and general peculiarity until all the new machinery has been installed and is working properly. We thank you for your patience!
Email the author of this post at admin@tap-repeatedly.com.
Site Misbehavior
As some visitors may have noticed, over the past 4-6 days we have been experiencing intermittent timeouts and other bad-kitty behavior, which makes us sad. Please bear with as we work through the problem. If you encounter a timeout or gateway error, just try the site again in a few minutes. Apologies for the inconvenience! A Tap-less existence is a meaningless existence!
UPDATE: thanks to one super-heroic MrLipid, we think the problem has been thwarted. Thank you all for your patience!
Email the author of this post at admin@tap-repeatedly.com
Site Maintenance this Weekend
Tap-Repeatedly will be undergoing some maintenance throughout the weekend. You may encounter odd site behavior – our apologies if you have any problems. Please be patient and pardon our dust.
Forums Offline
The forums will be offline for maintenance and software upgrades today. This outage should be brief, but we are attempting to address a fairly major problem on the back end so unexpected surprises and excitement are possible. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: forums are back online. Enjoy!
UPDATE UPDATE: we are currently looking into a problem with the blog comment system. All will be well presently.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: some horrible fanged monster has eaten the comment system. Right now a skilled team of crack Tap coders are hard at work on the problem. The forums are working, though, so if you have anything to share, please feel free!
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: we’ll be taking the site offline at some near-future point to correct (what we think caused) the break in the comment system. Unfortunately the fix requires some surgery. Your patience is appreciated!
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: comments are working again. Thanks for the patience!
Happy Holidays!
From all of us here at Tap-Repeatedly to all of you out there braving the cold to get stranded at an airport in a vain attempt to visit relatives, we wish you warmth and happy times. As usual, things will be quiet around Tap Central Command until after the egg nog hangovers have disappeared, but we look forward to serving up even more of our acerbic brand of wit in 2010. Best wishes!
Celebrity Guest Editorial: Marcus Sakey Returns!
Hello all, and please welcome back Steerpike’s older and more successful brother as a Celebrity Guest Editor! Marcus Sakey is a famous crime novelist – complete with awards and movie deals – and a wonderful guy to boot. His latest novel, The Amateurs, just came out in early August and is already garnering rave reviews.
Unfortunately the transition from FFC to Tap somehow ate up Marcus’s first Celebrity Guest Editorial, and he graciously offered to do another one. A lifelong gamer like his brother, Marcus is always looking for ways to integrate his beloved hobby with his increasingly complex life. Today he discusses the challenge of finding a good game to share with my kickass sister in law, who is hardly opposed to games but doesn’t find much appealing in the mainstream stuff. Marcus visits Tap often under the moniker “Marquez,” so be sure to leave some comments and suggestions for the lad. Thanks Marcus!
Celebrity Guest Editorial: Tom Allen!
I’m proud to present our latest Celebrity Guest, Thomas J. Allen, Executive Director of the National Academy of Video Game Testers and Reviewers (NAViGaTR). My first collaboration with Tom was back in 2005, an article on Quality of Life in the games industry, eventually (after after 18 months and 21 drafts) published in Develop Magazine across the pond in Europe. Tom and I have since appeared together on industry panels, collaborated on other articles like this one, and generally created our own brand of trouble. Tom is one of those people with 10-12 wild schemes cooking at once, and I’ve managed to participate in a few of them without losing my life or spotless criminal record.
One of Tom’s many passions is film, so today he presents us with a rumination on what the last few years might have been like had the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which so recently announced that it was switching to ten nominees for Best Picture instead of five, decided to do so earlier. As with our other Celebrity Guests, Tom will hang around for a while to respond to comments. Enjoy!
Celebrity Guest Editorial: Jason P. Sage!
FFC fans, please welcome Jason P. Sage as our latest contributor to the Fat Chicks Celebrity Guest Editorial Section. Jason is a hard-working independent developer on the technology and coding side of things. He and I have communicated fairly regularly over the past 12 months, discussing new technologies, the plight and promise of the indie developer, and various other topics.
Jason is also the lead of Jegas, LLC, a hosting and consulting provider offering innovative software, web development, networking, and technical solutions to its clients.
For as long as I can recall, Jason has been talking excitedly about Iron Infantry, a game he’s been developing himself. Recently, though, he’d seemed a bit… down on the subject, frustrated by the technology available to independent developers on a budget. In this article, he reflects on that, and also discusses the salvation he discovered in the form of Leadwerks Game Engine, an affordable third party solution so powerful that we’ll likely see some top-shelf games using it in the very near future. Even if you’re not an indie or an engine expert, you should find something intriguing in Jason’s article, as his tone and style speak volumes of what it’s like to develop from the independent trenches. Jason will be here as Jegas to respond to your comments. I hope you all enjoy the piece, and look forward to additional upcoming Celebrity Guest Editorials in the new year… take it away, Jason!
Shocking! Appalling! Criminal! Something Must be Done!
Literature, Gaming and Tomorrow, part 2
The Experiment
Recent Comments