Steve Anderson : End Game
Steve Anderson
The Video Store Guy
| The video game industry has gone from a mole hill to a mountain in no time flat, Chris DiMarco is your Sherpa as you endeavor to scale Mount “Everquest”

Longview IoT Boosts Energy and Wireless Efficiency

Some of the biggest challenges slowing down the adoption of IoT are security, efficient battery usage and optimized wireless communications.One company has...

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Hallmark's Simple, Inexpensive Way to Boost Customer Satisfaction

In an effort to boost margins, companies often push more users to automated solutions such as FAQs, chatbots, voice bots and anything...

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Huawei Places the World's First 5G VoNR Video Call

Huawei recently completed the world's first voice over NR (VoNR) call. The voice and video call service was made using two Huawei...

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IGEL Advances Future of Work

IGEL is a provider of a next-gen edge OS for cloud workspaces. The company’s software products include IGEL OS, IGEL UD Pocket (UDP) and Universal...

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Tata Communications and Cisco Collaborate on SD-WAN

Tata Communications and Cisco have extended their partnership to enable enterprises to transform their legacy network to a customized and secure multi-cloud...

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How to Win the 50-Year-Old China Trade War

Today and this week in-fact is historic - the left and right in the U.S. agree that we have a major trade...

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Extreme Elements Enables The Autonomous Enterprise

Extreme Networks just announced Extreme Elements which in-turn enables the autonomous network and subsequently the autonomous enterprise. In a dynamic webinar, Dan...

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Monetizing Online Gaming: All About Value

October 21, 2013

The other day I spotted an article on Cracked that really made me stop and think about the larger gaming market as we know it. The article in question wasn't exactly complimentary to a large swath of online gaming, but then I got to wondering, how much of this was applicable to the wider market? Was this just one disgruntled gamer? Or was this a trend in the making that developers could stand taking a response toward?

We all know that free to play gaming is taking off, but the issue of monetizing that content is still something of a thorny one.

A Golden Age of Gaming Afoot?

October 17, 2013

It's hard to remember a time before gaming was ubiquitous, but it was there. The console market was just getting started, and about the only place you could reliably find video games were at arcades that may have been miles away from your house. The idea that we're in a golden age of gaming is the stuff that could fuel a hundred arguments, but it's hard to deny that, at the very least, gaming is enjoying widespread popularity. The DICE Summit is already talking up such a phenomenon, to the point where the organizers are using the idea of a "golden age of gaming" as a theme for the 2014 conference.

So is it a "golden age of gaming" or not?

Is The Mobile Gaming Market Seizing Gamers On Time Constraints?

October 16, 2013

You might have noticed that, recently, I wasn't posting for a little while. I was enjoying a couple days off, a four-day weekend that not only let me get a lot done, but also let me enjoy some quiet time and a chance to stretch my wrists a bit from their standard position, hovering over a keyboard. But I also got some game time in, and had a wild time with "Saints Row 4", running around the alien simulation of Steelport and blasting whatever happened. But with this rare slice of time off, I also got a lot of stuff done around the house that I'd been meaning to do, and after catching up on gaming news I saw a bit on VentureBeat about how being an adult means that there's a lot less time for gaming than there used to be.

How the Sunflex Unu Reflects the "Battle for the Living Room"

October 10, 2013

Earlier today, the German device maker Sunflex announced the Unu tablet, a tablet with a surprising variety of features that comes in at a surprising price for a device that can do so much. This entertainment Swiss army knife offers not only an Android tablet, but also a tiny console and a smart TV system all in one package, and poses an interesting question about the “battle for the living room.”

The Sunflex tablet is said to be just $20 more than Google's powerful new small tablet the Nexus 7. The tablet itself runs Android 4.2, and runs it on a quad-core processor running at 1.6 GHz. It includes a docking station, and throws in a proprietary remote and a gamepad for a total of $250 all told. The tablet version works much in the same fashion as most any other tablet, though it's where the system switches to console mode and smart TV mode that things get interesting.

Oculus Calls Together The Biggest Names In Virtual Reality

October 9, 2013

Conferences aren't exactly new; there are conferences for just about every industry out there, and commonly, conferences are regarded as valuable tools to show off new products and services, as well as network with others in that particular field. Sometimes even speeches are delivered that provide particular insight into a field. Oculus, meanwhile, is bringing out some of its senior engineers to set up its own conference, this time around virtual reality.

Oculus' Chief Operating Officer, Laird Malamed, will be joined by other Oculus staffers to put on a one day event on November 2 called “Future of Virtual Reality with OculusVR.” The event is set to take place at Cambridge, Massachusetts' Microsoft Nerd Center, and will include not only a variety of demonstrations in the field, developer workshops, employment workshops, and a set of technical Q&A sessions along with a chance to get hands-on with the company's flagship technology, the Oculus Rift headset. The event will be free to attend, though the company is encouraging attendees to offer up a donation to the Boston Children's Hospital., as the event is set to take place the same day as Boston Extra Life, which serves as a gaming event with that particular charity in mind.

Interestingly, it won't be just about the hardware, either, as “multiple Boston-based game studios” are set to present a set of topics about implementing games on the Oculus Rift thanks to exposure to the developer kit.



Kiip Wants To Know: Who's The Best Mobile Gamer Around?

October 8, 2013

Mobile gaming; it's changed minds and attitudes all the way along the ecosystem from developers to gamers, and more and more people are starting to take this concept a lot more seriously. But one of the most recent efforts that's revealed itself in recent days is showing us how serious this field is starting to get, as Kiip and Guinness World Records is coming together for what is said to be a first-of-its-kind event: a bid to find the best mobile gamer on the face of the Earth.

 

Kiip dropped the word on this one earlier today, detailing how a three-day competition comprised of several Kiip Swarms—their term for large-scale tournaments—will decide the best mobile gamer on Earth.

The Asylum Jam: Rethinking Horror Gaming

October 7, 2013

For many people, mental illness is a scary thing. In general and in particular, it's not hard to see why mental illness is both a theme and a setting in horror movies and horror gaming alike. The Asylum Jam, meanwhile, wants to change some perceptions and turn a few standards of horror upside down, as game programmers look to make games without turning to mental health.

The Asylum Jam, which runs from October 11 through October 13, requires game developers to produce a scary game without the use of, as Asylum Jam puts it: “...asylums, psychiatric institutes, medical professionals or violent / antipathic / insane patients as settings or triggers.” Asylum Jam further elaborates that “This jam is to show that you can still create a great horror experience without using inaccurate stereotypes of those who suffer from mental illness or the institutions that support them in diagnosis and recovery.”

It's easy to be of two minds about this. For many, evil and insanity go hand in hand; it's hard to explain some horror movie behaviors—particularly the more sadistic behaviors—without pulling out the more conventional explanation of sociopathy.



The Mobile Gaming Market: Changing Minds

October 3, 2013

A recent interesting fact cropped up earlier today, as facts have a tendency to do, that showed that—in a survey staged by Goo Technologies—more users were turning to browser gaming than were turning to console gaming. The majority's margin here was narrow, as just 52 percent of gamers in that survey of 2,046 adults over the age of 18 preferred browser, but it was still a point that was worth paying attention to.
 
There were plenty of reasons for the shift—costs, ease of use, interactivity with friends and several others—but it's the fact that more users were looking to play games on Web browsers than were looking for consoles that was especially noteworthy, particularly with two major new console launches about to hit in the form of Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4. The increasing move to browser gaming—and mobile gaming in general—wasn't lost on Sony, however, as Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony Worldwide Studios, had some remarks in line about mobile gaming.
 
Mobile gaming, according to Yoshida, had “totally shifted our way of thinking,” as Yoshida gave an interview to GamesIndustry International, talking about some of Sony's cross-promotion plans. One set of plans for the PS4 launch title “Knack” included a themed puzzle game that would be not only be available at no charge, but playing the game would provide items that could be used within the wider game itself.



For JumpCore, Zombies & Real Time Strategy Pair Up Well

October 2, 2013

Two great tastes that taste great together; it's an old description of the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, but it's also an exciting way to look at games. An upcoming title from JumpCore, “Undead Overlord”, looks to put that principle to work, bringing zombies and a real-time strategy game together in one handy package.

“Undead Overlord” is something of an unusual concept when it comes to gaming. Instead of sending out people into the midst of a zombie apocalypse to permanently kill the walking dead, this time, we instead take control of said walking dead to go forth and feast on humanity. The overriding goal here seems to be exactly what a zombie's goal should be: to eat the flesh of the living.

Can MOBA Game Schools Perk Up The E-Sports Concept?

October 1, 2013


One of the more popular breeds of game that becomes an e-sports standard is the MOBA, or Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, game. Games like “League of Legends” and “Defense of the Ancients” fall into this category, and the play mechanics are often quite a bit different from what a player may expect going in. But this new world, so different from what many gamers are used to, may get a bit of a boost from “schools” of sorts opening up to accommodate newcomers to the field, and with it, potentially a whole new shot in the arm for e-sports.
 
Out at VentureBeat, contributor Stephanie Carmichael went through the LOLGuides.com “League of Legends” course, a five-day affair that offers newcomers—like Carmichael, at last report—a basic primer on the mechanics, tactics and goings-on contained within the larger picture of “League of Legends.” A more complete course, the Summoner School program, lasts eight weeks—though it can be completed at any pace—and costs $67. It's recommended that users be acquainted with the basics—a month's practice beforehand is recommended to get down the basics of the controls and whatnot—though apparently even a week can make sufficient difference.
 
Anyway, Carmichael charted her experiences in the program, and discovered that the program is a sound one for those who already know what they're doing when it comes to gaming in “League of Legends” and the like, something of a master-class to improve a player's performance, as opposed to a complete ground-up boot camp for new League players.




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