• Gamer Picts and Themes:
  
  X06 Picture Pack
  
  LEGO Star Wars II 360 Downloadable Character Pack (200 points; Not available in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Taiwan)
  
• Trailer:
  
  X06 Arcade Montage
  
  Stranglehold
  
  Blitz the League
  
  F.E.A.R.
  
  Army of Two
  
• Video (Not available in France):
  
  Saint's Row-Mayhem Video Strategy (720p)
  
  Saint's Row-Insurance Fraud Video Strategy (720p)
  
  Saint's Row-Hitman Video Strategy (720p)
  
  Bringing it Home: Interview Day 3 Briefing Backstage Pass (Japan only)

Note: I don't know what happened to my Day 9 posting, because I was sure I published it. I'm blaming nefarious forces for deleting it, since I made snarky comments.

• Doom is coming to Xbox Live Arcade tonight.
  
• Sensible World of Soccer from Codemasters is coming to Xbox Live Arcade (sometime).
  
• Banjo and Kazooie is coming to the Xbox 360 (I think this was rumored in either GameInformer or The Official Xbox Magazine a few months ago).
  
• Gears of War -- CiffyB showed a new level; hopefully, screenshots will be posted soon.
  
• Assassin's Creed was playable, and looks amazing.
  
• BioShock looked to be all pre-rendered or pre-scripted, but looks to be amazing and twisted and complex and important.
  
• Blue Dragon is coming to the U.S. -- not just Japan.
  
• Lost Odyssey is coming to Europe and North America, and new footage was shown (or that's what they implied, but the streaming video crapped out right at the new content, so all I got was the slideshow version.)
  
• According to Peter Moore, the only place to play "the full Grand Theft Auto experience" due to exclusive download content. I'm not sure what this means for PS3-exclusive content.
  
• Lost Planet: Extreme Condition got a nod from Peter, but no video. It is playable (single and multiplayer) at X06. Lucky bastards.
  
• Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent was represented with new video, but the big news (HUGE) is the next Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell title will be an Xbox 360 and Games for Windows exclusive. Brilliant way to lock in third-party support, and Microsoft is timing this perfectly -- Double Agent will likely rock, and fans of the franchise who haven't yet bought a next-gen console better get an Xbox 360. Sony, rebuttal?
  
• Forza 2 has an early playable build on the X06 show floor.
  
• There was a big plug for Games for Windows, and Windows Vista as a gaming operating system (Conan: Hyporean Adventures, Crysis, Shadowrun, LEGO Star Wars II, Hellgate: London, Halo 2, etc.).
  
• Live Anywhere is the integration of Xbox Live and Games for Windows, with Shadowrun as the first title.
  
• They announced Marvel Universe Online, a Live Anywhere title exclusive to the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows, and is a Marvel comic book MMORPG. I am literally shaking in excitement.
  
• Peter Jackson and Microsoft Game Studios announced a partnership to create new form of entertainment medium "between games and movies". This first will be based on the Halo universe. They also announced of the formation of Wingnut Interactive, the interactive company division of Jackson's/Fran Walsh's empire.
  
• There was an absolutely amazing cinematic of Halo Wars, a Halo-based RTS from Ensemble studios. As soon as I saw the sillouette of the Warthog passing overhead (I spend an unusual amount of time getting mowed down in Halo 2), I stopped IMing gamer buddy GammaZero and squealed at the screen like a Hello Kitty fangirl.
  
  'Halo Wars is set during the UNSC's first deadly encounters with the Covenant, allowing players to lead the crew of the UNSC's "Spirit of Fire" from initial skirmishes to an all out war against the evil Covenant.'
  
  (Hey, history buffs, did you know Halo was originally envisioned as an RTS before it became an FPS? Did you know Ensemble Studios knows RTSes (Age of Empires/Age of Mythology/The Conquerors/The Titans)? Did you know they're in Dallas? Did you know the drive from Austin to Dallas is nothing for talented, professional voice actors?)
  
• The HD-DVD player will be available in in November for $199, and for a limited time, come with the Xbox 360 universal remote and the HD-DVD version of Peter Jackson's King Kong.
  
• Come this holiday, there will be 160 Xbox 360 titles (I'd like to see the breakdown, because I suspect this is on Xbox Live Arcade and full titles, and I wonder if this is supposed to be "next holiday").

• FIFA 07
• Need for Speed Carbon
• Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 07
• NBA LIVE 07
• NHL07
• Half Life 2 (the game we wanted on the Xbox, packed to the gills with content!)
• SUPERMAN RETURNS: THE VIDEOGAME (must they YELL this title? And have they fixed that "I'm Brandon-Routh-in-an-inflatable-Superman-costume" look? And will Superman actually get to fight in this game?)

• Demo
  
  Sonic the Hedgehog
  
  
• Gamer Picts and Themes:
  
  Halo Wars Picture Pack (not free)
  
  Halo Wars Theme (not free, but I bought it; be aware, it's based on the Halo Wars concept art -- not stills from the trailer, which I would have preferred. Where's my freaking Xbox Live Marketplace preview, Microsoft?)
  
• Arcade
  
  Doom
  
• Trailer:
  
  Kane & Lynch: Dead Men Trailer
  
  Call of Duty 3
  
  Banjo Kazooie
  
  Marvel Ultimate Online (still shaking from excitement)
  
  Viva Pinata
  
  Assassin's Creed (this was a cool real-time demo)
  
  Splinter Cell: Double Agent
  
  Blue Dragon
  
  Lost Odyssey
  
  Bioshock
  
  FIFA 07
  
  Rainbow Six Vegas ("Vertigo")
  
  Halo Wars (Yay!)

"It's safe to assume that something cool will come out of that X06 show," and
the next podcast will be "juicy."

According to Major Nelson, here's what's supposed to be available over Xbox Live for Day #7 of Microsoft's "Bringing it Home" promotion:

• Trailers
  
  Forza 2 Physics & Damage
  
  NBA 2K7
  
  Sonic The Hedgehog
  
  Shrek 3
  
  1Just Cause
  
  NHL 2K7
  
  The Darkness (This is either of dup of Day 6, or it didn't get posted that day)
  
• Demos
  
  Lego Star Wars II (the Xbox version also available on the current disc of the Official Xbox Magazine)

According to Major Nelson, here's what's supposed to be available over Xbox Live for Day #6 of the Tokyo Game Show:

• Trailers
  
  Battlestations Midway
  
  Eragon
  
  Import Tuner Challenge
  
  Need for Speed Carbon
  
  The Darkness (Sooo looking forward to this game)
  
• Demos
  
  F.E.A.R. (also available on the current disc of the Official Xbox Magazine)
  
• Picture Packs
  
  Mass Effect Picture Pack
  
  Battlestar Galactica (US Only)
  
• Video
  
  TGS Showfloor video 3

According to Major Nelson, here's what's supposed to be available over Xbox Live for Day #5 of the Tokyo Game Show:

• Trailers
  
  Virtua Tennis
  
  3NBA Live 07
  
  NHL 2K7
  
• Video
  
  TGS Showfloor video 2
  
  TGS Showfloor video Day 3*
  
  Gamers' Interview*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #8*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #9*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #10*

* = In Japan only; unless you have a Japanese gamer tag...

According to Major Nelson, here's what's supposed to be available over Xbox Live for Day #4 of the Tokyo Game Show:

• Trailers
  
  Vampire's Rain*
  
  Forza 2 Customization
  
• Theme
  
  Forza 2 Theme (costs money)
  
• Video
  
  TGS Showfloor video 2 (This is listed as "1" on MajorNelson, which I think is a typo)
  
  TGS Showfloor video Day 2*
  
  Game Creator Interview*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #5*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #6*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #7*

* = In Japan only; unless you have a Japanese gamer tag...

According to Major Nelson, here's what's supposed to be available over Xbox Live for Day #3 of the Tokyo Game Show:

• Trailers
  
  Portal
  
• Demo
  Fusion Frenzy 2 (Yay!)
  
• Video
  
  TGS Showfloor video 1
  
  TGS Showfloor video Day 1*
  
  GM Sensui Interview*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #1*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #2*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #3*
  
  Xbox Live The Party #4*

* = In Japan only; unless you have a Japanese gamer tag...

• Trailers
  
  Vista Game Montage
  
  Fusion Frenzy 2 trailer
  
  Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom trailer
  
  Team Fortress 2 trailer
  
  Table Tennis trailer*
  
• Theme
  
  TGS Theme

"Xbox 360 and the HD DVD Player together deliver the most powerful and affordable games and movie system for Japanese consumers,” Moore said. “The freedom to choose their entertainment experiences is extremely important for consumers as they enter the next generation."

In addition, Microsoft announced that its fall software update, scheduled for release later this year, will allow all Xbox 360 consoles around the world to output game and movie content in 1080p resolution.

"How's this for a shot across your hi-def bow, Sony?"

• Trailers
  
  DOA X2 E3 Trailer*
  UPDATED: Old E3 trailer, and available from TeamXbox.com.
  
  Project Sylpheed*
  
  Tenchu Senran (very slick, very brief video)
  UPDATED: It's also available over on TeamXbox.com.
  
  Half-Life 2 - Episode 2 (The high-def video's been on TeamXbox.com for a while)
  
• Demos
  
  Tenchu Senran* (Mother! I would like this demo; oh wait, I have a Japanese gamer tag ...)
  
• Game Downloads
  
  BFMEII Aragorn’s Journey - Map Pack 1 (Don't download this yet; it's supposed to be free during Bringing it Home, but it's not, and the team's working to resolve it)
  UPDATED: Seems to be fixed now.
  
  BFMEII Northern Badlands - Map Pack 2 – 350 Points
  
• Arcade
  
  Spades Vision support
  
  Hearts Vision support
  
  Backgammon Vision support
  
  Bankshot Billiards Vision support
  
• Community
  
  TGS Picture Pack

Everyone loves Xbox Live Arcade, and here's a demo reel of what's coming soon. Any new surprises in store? Among the games not yet out: Defender, Gyruss, Contra, Lumines, Dig Dug, and Fatal Fury Special.

2:38: Whoa, here come new additions to the service, including the Japan-exclusive Yie Ar Kung Fu, along with Rush 'n Attack, Ms. Pac-Man, and New Rally X. Yie Ar exclusive to Japan?! What about us poor Western gamers?

Wow, and in early 2007, Microsoft will conduct a Pac-Man world championship. The top 10 players on the game's leaderboard will be flown to New York City to compete for the top prize. Pac-Man creator himself Toru Iwatani from Namco is now on-stage to discuss the enhancements to the game available on Live.

Seems like the big enhancement is the worldwide leaderboard. Not a mindblowing new feature, but similar features have certainly enlivened Xbox Live Arcade competition for other titles since the 360's release.

"In total, more than 100 pieces of new downloadable content will be available to
gamers during the nine day period, including a never before announced major
franchise on Xbox Live Arcade."

• Four GameCube controller ports
• Two GameCube memory-card slots
• Two USB 2.0 ports
• SD Card slot
• IEEE802.11 Wi-Fi capability will let it communicate wirelessly with the DS handheld or the Internet
• Will support component and S-Video output

Time will tell whether this decision has any impact, or if Panansonic will release a DVD version of the Wii, like it did with the DVD-playing "Q" GameCube.

• Battalion Wars II
• Big Brain Academy (temporary name)
• * Excite Truck
• * The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
• Mario Strikers Charged
• Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• Super Mario Galaxy (temporary name)
• WarioWare: Smooth Moves
• * Wii Sports (bundled with the Wii console)

• Activision
  * Call of Duty 3
  Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
  Rapala Tournament Fishing
  * Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam
  World Series of Poker
• Atari
  Dragon Ball Z Budokai: Tenkaichi 2
• Atlus
  * Trauma Center: Second Opinion
• Buena Vista Games
  Chicken Little: Ace in Action
  Disney's Meet the Robinsons
• Codemasters
  Dance Factory
  Sidewinder
• EA
  The Godfather
  * Madden NFL 07
  * Need for Speed: Carbon
  SSX
  Tiger Woods PGA Tour
• Konami
  * Elebits
• Majesco
  Bust-A-Move Revolution
• Midway
  The Ant Bully
  The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy
  Happy Feet
  Mortal Kombat: Armageddon
  Rampage: Total Destruction
  [Presumed canceled--Blitz: The League]
• Sega
  Sonic and the Secret Rings
  Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz
• SNK
  Metal Slug Anthology
• THQ
  Avatar: The Last Airbender
  Barnyard
  Cars
  SpongeBob SquarePants: Creature from the Krusty Krab
• Ubisoft
  * Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
  * Far Cry: Vengeance
  * GT Pro Series
  * Monster 4x4: World Circuit
  * Open Season
  Prince of Persia (working title)
  * Rayman Raving Rabbids
  * Red Steel
  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
  * Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
• Vivendi Games
  Ice Age 2: The Meltdown

• Atlus
• Bandai Namco
• Banpresto
• Capcom
• Chunsoft
• D4 Enterprise
• Enterbrain
• Hal Laboratory
• Hudson
• Irem
• Jaleco
• Kemco
• Koei
• Konami
• NCS Masaya
• Netfarm
• Paon
• Rocket Company
• Sega
• Square Enix
• Sunsoft
• Taito
• Takara Tomy
• Tecmo

• Wii will go on sale in the Americas on November 19th
• The MSP is $249.99
• The bundle will include includes one wireless Wii Remote controller, one Nunchuk controller, and a copy of Wii Sports (collection of five different Wii Sports games)
• There was a little more info on the "Wii Channel" feature, which will allow users to "pick games to play, get news or weather, [edit,] upload and send photos or even create playable caricatures of themselves to use in actual games"
• Between Nov. 19 and Dec. 31, 30 titles will titles will be available
• First-party Nintendo titles will have an MSRP of $49.99
• "Wii’s self-loading media bay also can play the entire library of more than 530 Nintendo GameCube titles from day one."
• The U.S. pricing structure was not released, but will be "in the coming weeks"

• Austin Game Conference prep
• AGC Day 1: Keynote (Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.)
• AGC Day 1: Keynote: Charles Deenen, Sr. Audio Director, Electronic Arts
• AGC Day 1: PS3 EU launch delayed
• AGC Day 1: Inside the Voice Actor's Studio: Writing Dialogue for Actors
• AGC Day 1: Re-Thinking Service Offerings
• AGC Day 1: Improv for Writers
• AGC Day 2: Thoughts from yesterday
• AGC Day 2: More thoughts
• AGC Day 2: Keynote: Jon Landau Producer; COO Lightstorm Entertainment
• AGC Day 2: Writing Comedy for Games
• AGC Day 2: Hollywood and Videogames: A Marriage Made in Hell?
• AGC Day 2: "New Frontiers in Digital Acting. A BioWare Perspective"
• AGC Day 2: Michael Dell "Fireside Chat"
• AGC Day 2: Official Afterparty
• AGC Day 3: Pre-Keynote
• AGC Day 3: Keynote Vernor Vinge
• AGC Day 3: "Moving Beyond Men In Tights"
• AGC Day 3: Financing Choices for Start Up Game Companies
• AGC Day 3: "Digital Distribution Revolution"
• AGC: Additional thoughts and opinions

I saw that there's also a summary of the AGC sessions and events over at Gamasutra.com, but I've noticed a bunch of errors in the stories, so tread lightly (like I'm one to talk).

"Actors. They work 88 days out of the year -- no wonder they love their jobs. We work all the time, and don't get any recognition. I freaking hate voice actors."

I haven't done this in a long time. Walked into the wrong room. I had intended to go into "Design and Implementation Considerations for Deploying Server and Network Infrastructure in Asia and North America", but walked into "Financing Choices for Start Up Game Companies". Whoops (but, look, yesterday's choice was between "Economic Theory and MMOGs" and "New
Frontiers in Digital Acting. A BioWare Perspective").

I was going to walk out, but thought about the topic's applicability to everything I do at BigHugeCorp. Every time I start a new program, every time I take over a new program, every time I try to rebuild an existing program from the ground up -- I'm in essence doing a startup.

The funding techniques didn't apply per se, though I did take a few of the relationship tips as applicable to getting additional internal funding.

Not that this was an easy push to make applicable to BigHugeCorp. This was a subdued talk, presented by Paul Kim, Executive VP of Go Pets, Ltd.

I'm talking SUBdued, the topic is comparitively dry, and the vibe in the room was floor level, and understandably so. These are folks who want to "make games", and Kim appropriately shot that down with the reality of needing to decide what that means (are you a publisher? Developer? Porter? Licensed or original IP? Etc.), and what it costs -- financially and time-wise.

There was good talk about what to leverage and why. Leverage yourself (you are building a product), your product (you're building an asset), your contracts (you're building a business), your network (you're building a successful business).

Institutional funding was an interesting side discussion. I didn't realize that in addition to the largely untapped US gov funding, other countries pay even more to incent US development on their soil. For example, $20M from Singapore; Korea will provide office space AND pay 1/2 of your payroll (and you pay no US income tax, I believe).

Creative funding needs to be more leveraged. Think cross-vertical investments. Unfortunately, the applicability I see for this to BigHugeCorp is probably going to go away.

As an aside, Go Pets is an interesting and encouraging business story. And Kim is pretty impressive.

Mother! My Treo's dying again. So I'll curtail this.

Interesting. This session was led by Damion Schubert, lead combat designer for Bioware Austin. I'd thought he'd gone to Stray Bullet Games after Ubisoft shuttered Wolfpack Studios in Austin. Teach me to assume.

And he did a good presentation, focused, passionate and entertaining, and the best of the 3-4 times I've seen him speak.

Schubert's goal was to get us to think about what works, and curtail "bad" innovation (ant farming, etc.).

He made the analogy that World of Warcraft is Coke, and you're not going to go against Coke "unless you have Pepsi money." Good analogy.

The answer? "Smart innovation". Things like managed innovation/risk and subtle clear innovation rather than cloning, etc. (Some of this applies to BigHugeCorp.)

Ingredients:

• Tactical challenge to solve (which often gets reduced to "combat"; but should it?)
• Repeatability.
• Co-op -- he totally gets that "co-op is the future of gaming" (even over PvP). Yay!
• Scalable combat (that scales gracefully).
• Classes (not required, he argued, but useful) -- and they must be balanced.
• Players need appropriate choice (not too much; can be used in place of classes or class development, per se).
• Tactical transparency (Texas Hold 'em vs 5 card draw); especially in PvP.
• Levels and experience reward devotion, not skill (not all players have skill, and you're trying to keep subscribers, and if it's too hard to earn rewards, they'll bail).
• Big moments that are equivalent to levels (getting a mount in WoW level 40, getting last name at UO level 20.

"Your players are obsessed with fairness. They are obsessed with real and perceived fairness."

Schubert addressed the "grind" problem in MMORPGs. Not sure what his contention was. WoW gets this right with the pacing and rewards for quest -- but it makes for a non-grindy experience.

So why all the fantasy MMOs?

Resonance. Fantasy resonates.

Double-coding (Bugs Bunny, Animaniacs; I suspect Viva Pinata, given the episodes I've seen), where the writing is for kids and adults -- as opposed to paren-brain-melting Blues Clues. Fantasy, by nature, is double coded.

Heroic arc (City of Heroes; as an aside, from several of these sessions, CoH really breaks a lot of the rules).

Escapism. 'Nuff said.

Villainous arc that matches the heroic arc (start out with a giant rat, then culminates with a dragon).

Fantasy as a trope gives players roles they feel with which they can contribute.

Thoughts on a choosing a genre/trope? "Have a vision, and deliver on the vision."

He also discussed licensed vs original IP. Examples included Stargate (with its non-combatant archeologist challenge), the currently slumbering Highlander (with its "permadeath" challenge; though I have so thought through how I would make this a compeling MMO), and Star Trek (with it's diplomacy-combat-as-last-resort-core-principal challenge). Be interesting to see how these problems are solved.

Also, he touted the importance of not relying on players finding their own fun.

And while people focus on the success of WoW, Second Life, Eve Online, and Runescape are "worldy" games (rather than "gamey" games) that have done really well (and are succesful). Worlds tend to be more free, more real, and more immersive. Gamey games generally are more directed, etc.

Good to hear him articulate that people often confuse poor execution with thinking there's a problem with the idea itself.

Again good session from Damion. I think the dude's a serious asset to BioWare Austin.

Thing didn't freaking start until 5 to 10, without explanation or apology.

Vinge is a professorial author, so I kept reminding myself "content is king". But this was heady, speculative fiction stuff (as opposed to derogatively monicered "skiffy" -- see my paper for the difference) -- which is to say, it was great.

He discussed ubiquitous computing, embedded processors, networked processors (and their soon-to-be incarnations of smart RFID or equivalents). This later evolution will lead to Smart Dust and MEMS, and Localizers (where a smart embedded processor knows where it and its
compatriots are in 3D space).

Wearable computing is needed to leverage these changes. As I think about this, we already are moving rapidly in this direction, with devices like true smartphone or PDA phones, with latter generation Bluetooth and upcoming wireless USB. The next step is ultra high-resolution eyeglass displays that track and can be driven by eye movements.

Interesting discussion of reality becoming database.

The scary thing is handling current software technology challenges, which become a much bigger deal with wearables -- SPAM, spoofing, cacheing, hijacking, etc.

So how does this apply to gaming?

Vinge posited that much of the "wisdom behind games become[s] the wisdom behind running our civilization."

There's also an impact with the huge number of concurrent simultaneous realities can exist.

People are going to need to come to grips with the reality that people talk to people that aren't physically present.

There was not much of a discussion on world economic impact to/from job-related alternate realities, micro-duration labor markets, analysts. My head is rabit trailing on things that impact or support or curtail these scenarios.

He made an unsettling analogy of members of the Society for Creative Anachronism living in their world 24/7 -- their pervasive reality. I have this unsettling vision of having a performance discussion with an employee of mine, who's living in this world, and sees me as the evil, oppressive fief lord. Is there a fundamental, uncrossable disconnect? Or, do one or the other of us suspend our reality and join the other's? Or do we BOTH suspend our realities, and go to some sterile white room reality with aluminum chairs and no destractions? The mind boggles. Or at least itches.

Maybe it's the after party after effects. Maybe it's because the Game Writers Conference ended yesterday.

But there is no one here.

It's Vernor Vinge, freaking awesome Hugo Award winning science fiction author, and there's no one here.

Ya think this keynote should have happened during the GWC?

(NOTE: My Treo died, so the next few summaries are stacked on top of each other. Deal.)

After a great lunch and chat with Adran (I ate lunch, we both chatted), it was off to the session "Hollywood and Videogames: A Marriage Made in Hell?" -- which was an interesting panel.

The speakers were impressive -- Moderator Corey Bridges, Executive Producer and Marketing Director of The Multiverse Network; Chris Klug, Creative Director of the Stargate Worlds MMO (Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment); writer's representative Michael I'm-embarrassed-I-forgot-his-last-name; and Lee Sheldon, Indiana University, and writer/producer/designer.

Great, direct semi-diatribe from Sheldon about if you're contributing to the media, youshould be a consumer of the brand:

"Why are you writing for games? Because you couldn't write for movies and TV in
Hollywood, so you thought you'd just try it, but you don't play games?
Bullshit."

I really appreciate that. I got into voice acting because I love games and cartoons. I get so frustrated reading interviews with voice actors who do the game or animation roles for which I'd do violence, and them saying, "Oh, I don't play games".

Mother!

There was also a frank discussion of breaking down the perceived classicism between the creative sides of the Hollywood and game communities -- because "there's not really a divide."

They were really off on the current state of episodic content -- they ostensibly said it's not happening. But think about it. Bethesda's Oblivion. Valve's Half-Life 2. Vivendi's Sam and Max. Sin: Episodes. Bone. Microsoft's weekly Xbox Live Arcade updates. I shall educate them. And they will likely disparage me.

And Sheldon hates cutscenes. He and CliffyB would probably have a great (probably violently agreeant) conversation on the topic.

Oh, and Sheldon mentioned the death of Floyd in Planetfall, one of my all-time favorite games. That took me back.

This happens.

Virtually all the panelists begged out, leaving only Tom Abernathy, the writer/designer behind Destroy All Humans! (and its sequel) at Pandemic Studios. He was joined by two ad hoc panelists: John Sutherland, writer at Microsoft Game Studios; and Matt Soell, the incredible writer at Wideload Games behind Stubbs the Zombie: Rebel without a Pulse (Funny freaking game. Read my review. Buy the game. Seriously. This thing's so under-rated).

I expected the funny in the whole experience, which might not have been fair, but it wasn't quite there. Subdued panel, though some good nuggets. And the guys are witty. And Tom is animated and opinionated. I like that.

But the session title is "Writing COMEDY for Games". Where da "ha ha" funny?

Hmm ... This game writers audience has a different kind of energy than at other writer's conferences I've attended. And I've been (and managed) writers. Interesting.

I was going to go the server deployment talks for either MMOs or MMPs (to look for applicability for my duties at BigHugeCorp), but those 2 sessions turned into roundtables, and hadn't started when I went to join them (late). Not to be small, but I wonder if that would have been a livelier discussion.

Despite the fact that Landau read virtually his entire keynote, this was fascinating stuff (and Q&A wasn't scripted and was much better). And though read, this was good, well-thought stuff.

James Cameron is a technology visionary. His splitting Terminator into two films so technology could catch up (and testing the concept first in The Abyss) shows foresight and patience.

He and Landau have created an amazing production pipeline that -- in real-time -- lets Cameron not look at actors, but at virtual characters in virtual environments.

A cool tangent for this is Landau's and Cameron's focus on "Performance Capture", rather than "Motion Capture" -- getting every performance nuance and action, rather than just motion. This is good news for this actor. Even better in the Q&A, Landau said ("no offense to anyone in this room"), "our goal is get rid of the animator, and keep the actor". He said he and Cameron look at performance capture as "21st Century prosthetics", and are improvement over the analog versions, because they can be reductive to the actor's structure, rather than just additive.

He also did a pretty passionate argument for the importance of digital projection in theaters, which is required for the new 3D (which doesn't require glasses, and has proponents like Cameron, Robert Zemeckis, and Disney behind it). It also makes a theater multi-purpose, rather than just show 35mm film.

All of this feeds into virtual worlds, asset re-use, and the separation of game participation vs movie voyeurism, and MMOs (which arguably provide both).

He encouragingly talked about how the games, rather than regurgitating the film, can show worlds, characters, and themes not presented in the film (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic anyone?). He also said the inverse could be true -- games can influence upcoming films.

He made some strong analogies between the independent film and independent games.

Other strong words about games, like films, needing to start with a story, rather than with assets, and games shouldn't be made to meet a date, because "dates don't make films; films make dates". Kinda. There are still holiday films and summer blockbusters, and games are retail products and entertainment experiences; not just the latter.

It's a new world in this "intersection of technology and culture". Cameron, Landau, Lightstorm, and Multiverse are doing an MMO. Ron Howard and Wideload Games are doing an MMO. Wow.

Really, really good time to be an hard core actor/gamer/movie professional.

And I introduced myself to Landau and told him "thank you" for his and Cameron's focus on actors. And I gave him my business card demo. 'Cause they should audition me for Avatar. The game and the movie.

I've been thinking about Gordon Walton's (Bioware, Austin) talk yesterday, "Re-thinking MMO service offerings".

In particular, he talked about jettisoning "bad" Customers -- that fractional group that causes between 20-25% ofthe pain.

I need to think about this more, but I've got some ideas perculating about BigHugeCorp ...

"Microsoft vs IBM."

The historically aware know about the significance of this statement.

Right now, at the Austin Game Conference, it's taking on new significance.

I'm stoked Microsoft has released a free version of their XNA development tools, and opened Xbox Live so publishers can host their own content.

But they have to.

I'm holding a brochure from IBM, and they're in the game.

Besides extending Rational BuildForge for games, they can apply the Cell Broadband Engine, Blade Server and their hosting as product and service offerings for online games.

They've extended their source control, content, and asset management software for game development.

And IBM isn't even a game-centric company. But they're IBM.

And Microsoft is Microsoft.

"Microsoft vs IBM."

Game on ...

After a hurried lunch with independent NY audio producer Michael, it was off to "Re-Thinking Service Offerings":

This was really a round table discussion led by Gordon Walton (Bioware, Austin), who's a freaking impressive person in the game scene.

There was some decent back and forth about a number of topics, like "software vs service", "brand power", "customer loyalty", etc.

I say "decent", because they (a) didn't have background with other industries' trends and MO (like telco, my BigHugeCorp, etc.), and (b) there weren't sufficient deep dives.

For example, no discussions about additional revenue opportunities vs cost reduction vs cost recovery.

And there was way to brief a discussion of the importance of brand, which (coupled with loyalty) translates into attraction and retention.

Still a good discusion, but I kept my mouth shut about the BigHugeCorp perspective -- but I took stuff away.

And Gordon Walton is impressive.

Here's a session I was pretty excited about: "Inside the Voice Actor's Studio: Writing Dialogue for Actors".

It was a panel of writing, casting, and voice over -- Marianne Krawczyk,writer (God of War, Sopranos video game); Dawn Hershey, CSA Casting Director (Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), Blindlight; Debi Mae West, voice actor (Meryl, Metal Gear Solid); Flint Dille, Writer (Chronicles of Riddick), CEO, Bureau of Film and Games; Ryan Wickerham, voice actor (Thief : Deadly Shadows); and moderator Joseph
Staten, writing director (Halo, Halo 2), Bungie Studios.

Freaking amazing session, on so many fronts, I'll have to write oodles later ...

AGC scuttlebutt: PS3 EU launch delayed to March 2007 -- and people here are grumpy ...

UPDATE: And serious shortage on units, too. TeamXbox.com has a hilarious, if borderline unprofessional, graphic.

Next up, I headed over to the sister Game Audio Conference for the keynote from Charles Deenen (Sr. Audio Director, Electronic Arts).

Charles started with his values, ("enjoy what you do, play within the system, work hard be direct play fair, and your best tools are your staff"). I really appreciated this grounding as to why he does what he does.

He left the game industry for a while, and came back, and his goal was (and is) to create emotionally engaging audio in games.

He made a point about realism, and we're good, but not good enough, and too much attempt at realism will fall short, jerking gamers out of the experience (he used them film, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within as an example).

Charles did an interesting differentation of "emotion" (the cross cultural reaction), and "feeling" (the cultural/individual response to emotion.

Game audio, he contends, can generate (or destroy) emotions, and "more emotion leads to less judgement", and possibly addictive behavior.

He broke out 4 critical components to audio:

• Music
• Dialog
• Sound Effects
• Mix

We then did a brief table exercise where each table picked something that quickly emotionally enhances a game (appropriate quality music was the common answer here), and something that can emotionally destroy a game -- "repetition" and "poor voice acting" were the common answers.

Poor voice acting. That's part of why I got into voice acting -- I'm tired of poor voice acting.

Charles did say that even bad acting and bad writing can be overcome, if audio is well-recorded, well-edited, and well-implemented to enhance believability.

The QA was a mixed bag, but some good discussions.

He said the audio directors at EA often don't have a lot of control over writing and voice acting -- external producers are hired for the efforts.

He said we should also cater to gamers. Always. Not to audio professionals.

On orchestral scored music, he said it depends on whether they're doing it to get specific emotional response, or "because we have budget to blow, and Hollywood does it".

Got to chat with Charles briefly afterward. Nice fellow.

First up Austin Game Conference was a Keynote from Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

A lot of this was using World of Warcraft as a device to explain Blizzard's design, development and marketing methodology.

Blizzard mantras:

• "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master"
• "Killing with a purpose"
• "Concentrated coolness"

Interesting that Blizzard, in their attempt to meet their "Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master" mantra designs depth first (character classes, dungeons, pvp, raids and end games), then accessibility. And pacing bridges the two.

On the accessibility front, UI is obviously the most apparent, and Pardo criticized UIs that "try to show too much" -- WoW offloads a lot of this to things like their auction house implementation.

Other areas of accessibility include the solo experience ("0 to 60"), new content as you level up, and handling "The Newbie Experience".

"Concentrated coolness" is handled through differention of races. They're not just differently skinned. And by limiting the number of classes.

Pardo went into the development truism that every decision costs. Interesting idea that compromise is not good, because "it makes members of both sides dissatisfied." He did some cool comparisons with graphics (WoW vs. Crysis); World size/Teleportation (WoW vs. Diablo); Prestige Gear/Customizable gear (WoW vs. Ultima).

He also made some conmments on creating a culture of polish that I need to evaluate in the context of my toy job.

Good keynote overall, and it worked, given the MMO nature of the conference.

As an aside, I'm just realizing the exclamation point matker system populated in Diablo II is a really good interface device.

UPDATE: A more in-depth blow-by-blow of the keynote is available from GameSpot.com.

• Comic Books

The first snippet is from that unannounced personal project I keep teasing, and the other two are from my Marvel Ultimate Avengers DVD audition.

And I went through my bag (picked it up early tonight), weeded out all the crap, and I'm good to go for tomorrow.

Time for a few hours of sleep before I hit it hard in the a.m.

Assassin's Creed, the oh-sweet-mother-that's-purty darling of E3, has generated a lot of buzz, controversy, and rumors since the convention.

Why?

1. Oh, Sweet Mother, that's purty, and
2. It's been considered a PlayStation 3 exclusive

No. 1's not really at question, and #2 has been put to rest -- twice -- this week.

Ubisoft never said the game was a PS3 exclusive, and since they're the #2 worldwide third-paty publisher (aka, "The House that Tom Clancy Built"), single-platform offerings don't make a lot of sense for them (Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii is a notable -- and very cool -- exception).

Reported Wednesday, Assassin's Creed was at least going to see the PC light of day, but no mention was made of the Xbox 360 version.

Today Ubisoft announced the game is indeed coming to the firstborn of the next-gen consoles:

"SAN FRANCISCO – September 1, 2006 – Today Ubisoft, one
of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that the version of its
new Assassin’s Creed™ franchise for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft will launch with the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system version of the game in early 2007."

And that's what the other news sites are basically reporting (uh, though I suppose I'm arguably nowhere near a "news" site; whatever) -- but there's an interesting nugget deeper in the press release:

"This title has not yet been concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainment
America."

Huh, so not only Assassin's Creed not a PS3 exclusive, but SCEA hasn't even officially agreed it'll be coming to their next-gen battle tank. I wonder if there was any dragging of feet that motivated Ubisoft to broaden their development focus (if they weren't going to do it anyway).

I'm stoked the game is coming to the Xbox 360.

Sweet Mother, that's purty ...