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“A future in which almost every aspect of your life includes a game like experience is all but inevitable.” — Jesse Schell, Video game designer/researcher, Carnegie-Mellon University I just got around to reading the December issue of Scientific American.  Bad mistake, I should have gotten to it earlier because therein is a fascinating article by …

It has been a lifetime since I contributed to Tap, but Steerpike’s/Matt’s latest IGDA article called “The Facts of Life” got my blood boiling.  It had little to do with what Steerpike said, but a whole lot to do with the philosophy so current in our marketplace.  The article pointed out a series of glitches …

Has it ever occurred to you that you can use you hands for an infinite number of activities?  I mean, really think about it, anything you can imagine using your hands for, you most likely can.  I know that may sound pretty silly but consider that a moment.  For years we have been playing computer …

Life sometimes has a way of biting us in the ass! Brilliance has it rewards, but if brilliance is far ahead of technology, or if you have secondary objectives, that bite can really hurt.   While there are circumstances where being bit in the ass can be pleasureable, it can also create a slow burn that …

If we didn’t love gaming none of us would spend a couple of hours each day here, checking out what’s new at Tap-Repeatedly.com.  The fact is, we love not only the process of playing the games, but are equally mystified and fascinated by the process of game design, development as well as production.  For years …

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games are all the rage now-a-days.  But here comes one that threatens to change the world of MMORPG gaming?  …so say the producers, at least.  Supposedly a big hit in Asia for the past few years, Aion will soon be dumped, if it hasn’t been already, onto servers in the U.S.  …

Part 3: The Third of the Great “Imaginators” In this, the final installment of “Literature, Gaming, and Tomorrow,” (first two articles here and here), I will examine the final of my three proposed “Great Imaginators” – that is, authors, dreamers, and creators of literature who in their so-called “fiction” actually proposed a world that has …

Part 2: Turning Dreams into Reality This is the second in the series on literature, gaming and tomorrow. The importance of imagination in game development was discussed and related to literature. More specifically, the relationship was made between science fiction lit. This seemed a natural fit since one of the curious things about our lives …

Part 1: The Wonder of Imagination Every once in a while I get really irritated at those who criticize without the benefit of knowledge. It makes me wish I were God so I could force them to drop their pants, bend over and accept ten swats with a paddle (with holes drilled through it). Too …

Sometimes I think I am losing it. Stuff is happening that I thought, at one time, would never happen. But, here we are, a bunch of old farts starting to discover video games. Now, understand, when I say old farts, I am referring to people in their fifth, sixth and seventh decade. One has to wonder what that will mean to the future of the gaming industry, much less to the future of civilization. Will Gramps turn into a rapist or a murderer?