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The eagerly awaited release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 -- already billed by many as the video game of the year and clearly the most anticipated game of the season -- was greeted both with cheers and with violence across the country.
Police in Aurora, Colo., said a man threatened to shoot Best Buy employees and even blow up the store when a copy of the game he had pre-ordered wasn't available.
Aurora police spokesman Detective Bob Friel says Lomorin Sar was stopped early Tuesday after he left the store and was issued a summons for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Friel says Sar, 31, was at the store around midnight for a promotion surrounding the release of the PlayStation 3 game.
"[He] threatened to carry out his own version of 'Modern Warfare' at the electronics store. Fortunately, this situation did not end in violence,” Friel told the Aurora Sentinel.
In Branford, Conn., malls reported broken glass, strewn garbage, and even vomit in the parking lot of a local mall where avid gamers waited for a fix of the new game.
"When I got here this morning, I thought I'm going to have a heart attack," Dina Dunn, manager of a local GNC, told The Connecticut Post. "It was like, I was shocked. Tons of garbage all the way through the plaza."
And in Kansas City, Mo., one man wanted a copy of the game badly enough that he was prepared to steal it at gunpoint. Police arrested the teenager Tuesday on charges that he followed a man from a local GameStop, pulled a gun on him and tried to steal his copy of the game.
The would-be robber fled -- but allegedly returned the game, straight into the hands of waiting authorities.
Violence aside, the latest installment in the "Call of Duty" franchise promises to be a whopping success, according to the first reviews.
Developers Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games have refined and polished the "Modern Warfare" experience to produce the best of the series with the third installment, wrote game reviewers at the IGN website.
No other first-person shooter has the same flair for visual spectacle in its single-player campaign, and few can match its utterly addictive multiplayer.The game bursts with effects and visual madness, the reviewers said: Entire battles are waged before you; buildings burn and crumble while a steady flow of explosions batter your senses.
Rarely does virtual violence led to such real world violence, however.
Source: [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/09/nationwide-violence-greets-release-new-call-duty-video-game/#ixzz1dGhukq8p]
Get all the latest GameStop Coupons at VideoGameCoupons.org.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Leading CD, DVD, Video Game Disc Manufacturer Turns to Millivision to Strengthen Security and Further Combat Employee Theft While Ensuring Workplace Safety, Privacy
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SOUTH DEERFIELD, MA, Nov 08, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Each year more than $10 billion of company property is stolen by workers at manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and warehouses worldwide. One global manufacturer of DVDs, CDs and video games is using Millivision's advanced object detection scanning systems to prevent employee theft while ensuring workplace safety and privacy.
The manufacturer turned to Millivision to prevent the loss of yet-to-be-released DVDs, CDs, video games and other intellectual property, which could be used to create bootleg or black market copies and could potentially result in millions of dollars of lost revenue annually.
To address this problem, the company chose Millivision's high reliability security and theft detection systems. Millivision systems are a major advance from traditional metal detection systems, employing safe, fast and far more effective passive millimeter wave technology.
Unlike x-ray or active scanning systems which subject people and operators to radiation with each scan, Millivision systems use passive millimeter wave technology, enabling customers to achieve the highest level of security and detection without the use of radiation or other harmful emissions.
Millivision systems detect not only metal items hidden under clothing but also non-metallic items such as the DVDs and CDs produced and stored at the manufacturer's manufacturing and warehousing facilities.
Songs, movies and games are the intellectual property of recording artists, movie studios and video game developers. The manufacturer wanted to set a high industry standard, assuring owners of IP that their property would be protected from the time it is mastered and throughout its retail life cycle.
In addition to reliable and safe detection, Millivision's Automatic Object Detection Tool allows the system to address other customer priorities:
-- A system respectful of employee privacy -- displaying no revealing
images
-- Easy to operate and use -- low staffing requirements and low operating
costs
-- A solution accepted by employees
-- Enables faster and easier exit of facilities at end of shift.
The company is in the process of putting a Millivision system at every entrance/exit of its warehouse and manufacturing/production centers. The company had been scanning employees with metal detectors, but found the Millivision system to be superior.
After investigating and testing many available systems and ruling out those based on x-ray and active millimeter wave technology, the company chose Millivision.
Millivision has delivered and installed over a dozen systems to date with deployments at additional sites planned for 2012.
"As the deployment of Millivision's advanced detection systems demonstrates, there is a new, more powerful -- yet safer -- option for organizations working to address the real and growing problem of employee theft," said Millivision president Paul Nicholas. "Millivision has a solution for businesses and government agencies seeking more effective ways to stop employee theft. Our systems can detect small high-value computing, navigation and communication devices, software, weapons and, as is the case in this deployment, software, DVDs, video games, Blu-Ray discs and CDs. While deterring, detecting and preventing theft is essential, preserving employee safety and dignity is a necessity. Millivision's passive millimeter wave technology is the answer."
About Millivision: Millivision Technologies offers a family of security and theft detection systems based on passive millimeter wave technology, which delivers the highest level of security and detection without the use of radiation. Millivision also has a patented set of privacy tools to ensure personal privacy and dignity. Millivision solutions, from checkpoint portals to walk-by and stand-off systems, address the needs of many different facets of the security market, including corporate loss prevention, municipal and government facilities, essential infrastructure, commercial aviation and mass transit-markets anticipated to grow rapidly over the coming year. A privately-held company, Millivision is in South Deerfield, MA, an area recognized as a center of millimeter wave research and development.
Source: [http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leading-cd-dvd-video-game-disc-manufacturer-turns-to-millivision-to-strengthen-security-and-further-combat-employee-theft-while-ensuring-workplace-safety-privacy-2011-11-08]
Get all the latest GameStop Coupons at VideoGameCoupons.org.
SOUTH DEERFIELD, MA, Nov 08, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Each year more than $10 billion of company property is stolen by workers at manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and warehouses worldwide. One global manufacturer of DVDs, CDs and video games is using Millivision's advanced object detection scanning systems to prevent employee theft while ensuring workplace safety and privacy.
The manufacturer turned to Millivision to prevent the loss of yet-to-be-released DVDs, CDs, video games and other intellectual property, which could be used to create bootleg or black market copies and could potentially result in millions of dollars of lost revenue annually.
To address this problem, the company chose Millivision's high reliability security and theft detection systems. Millivision systems are a major advance from traditional metal detection systems, employing safe, fast and far more effective passive millimeter wave technology.
Unlike x-ray or active scanning systems which subject people and operators to radiation with each scan, Millivision systems use passive millimeter wave technology, enabling customers to achieve the highest level of security and detection without the use of radiation or other harmful emissions.
Millivision systems detect not only metal items hidden under clothing but also non-metallic items such as the DVDs and CDs produced and stored at the manufacturer's manufacturing and warehousing facilities.
Songs, movies and games are the intellectual property of recording artists, movie studios and video game developers. The manufacturer wanted to set a high industry standard, assuring owners of IP that their property would be protected from the time it is mastered and throughout its retail life cycle.
In addition to reliable and safe detection, Millivision's Automatic Object Detection Tool allows the system to address other customer priorities:
-- A system respectful of employee privacy -- displaying no revealing
images
-- Easy to operate and use -- low staffing requirements and low operating
costs
-- A solution accepted by employees
-- Enables faster and easier exit of facilities at end of shift.
The company is in the process of putting a Millivision system at every entrance/exit of its warehouse and manufacturing/production centers. The company had been scanning employees with metal detectors, but found the Millivision system to be superior.
After investigating and testing many available systems and ruling out those based on x-ray and active millimeter wave technology, the company chose Millivision.
Millivision has delivered and installed over a dozen systems to date with deployments at additional sites planned for 2012.
"As the deployment of Millivision's advanced detection systems demonstrates, there is a new, more powerful -- yet safer -- option for organizations working to address the real and growing problem of employee theft," said Millivision president Paul Nicholas. "Millivision has a solution for businesses and government agencies seeking more effective ways to stop employee theft. Our systems can detect small high-value computing, navigation and communication devices, software, weapons and, as is the case in this deployment, software, DVDs, video games, Blu-Ray discs and CDs. While deterring, detecting and preventing theft is essential, preserving employee safety and dignity is a necessity. Millivision's passive millimeter wave technology is the answer."
About Millivision: Millivision Technologies offers a family of security and theft detection systems based on passive millimeter wave technology, which delivers the highest level of security and detection without the use of radiation. Millivision also has a patented set of privacy tools to ensure personal privacy and dignity. Millivision solutions, from checkpoint portals to walk-by and stand-off systems, address the needs of many different facets of the security market, including corporate loss prevention, municipal and government facilities, essential infrastructure, commercial aviation and mass transit-markets anticipated to grow rapidly over the coming year. A privately-held company, Millivision is in South Deerfield, MA, an area recognized as a center of millimeter wave research and development.
Source: [http://www.marketwatch.com/story/leading-cd-dvd-video-game-disc-manufacturer-turns-to-millivision-to-strengthen-security-and-further-combat-employee-theft-while-ensuring-workplace-safety-privacy-2011-11-08]
Get all the latest GameStop Coupons at VideoGameCoupons.org.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Technology - SCITECH Hijackers Steal $1M Worth of New 'Call of Duty' Video Game
Remember: You can get all the latest GameStop Coupons at VideoGameCoupons.org
In a heist worthy of any video game, brazen French bandits stole more than $1 million worth of copies of the new blockbuster first-person shooter "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," newspaper Le Parisien reported.
Two trucks containing thousands of copies of the game -- due to hit stores Tuesday -- were hijacked within an hour of each other Saturday morning in the suburbs of the French capital, with the value of the loot estimated at €780,000, or a little over $1 million.
In the first incident, the attackers hit a truck carrying the games with a vehicle, forcing the delivery drivers to stop and inspect the damage. They were confronted with two men wearing ski masks and armed with knives, who threw tear gas and made off with the truck.
An hour later, a truck carrying another consignment came across a vehicle blocking the road. When it stopped, three armed men jumped out, and one of them pointed a handgun at the driver, forcing him to abandon the truck.
The robbers remain at large.
Source: [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/07/hijackers-steal-1m-worth-new-call-duty-video-game/#ixzz1d2p5mik0]
In a heist worthy of any video game, brazen French bandits stole more than $1 million worth of copies of the new blockbuster first-person shooter "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," newspaper Le Parisien reported.
Two trucks containing thousands of copies of the game -- due to hit stores Tuesday -- were hijacked within an hour of each other Saturday morning in the suburbs of the French capital, with the value of the loot estimated at €780,000, or a little over $1 million.
In the first incident, the attackers hit a truck carrying the games with a vehicle, forcing the delivery drivers to stop and inspect the damage. They were confronted with two men wearing ski masks and armed with knives, who threw tear gas and made off with the truck.
An hour later, a truck carrying another consignment came across a vehicle blocking the road. When it stopped, three armed men jumped out, and one of them pointed a handgun at the driver, forcing him to abandon the truck.
The robbers remain at large.
Source: [http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/07/hijackers-steal-1m-worth-new-call-duty-video-game/#ixzz1d2p5mik0]
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Video games = bad health? No more.
In a new academic study conducted in Britain and Ireland, one in three parents have revealed that they play computer games with their children every single day – and that a majority of children showed improved concentration span through playing games.
The study was conducted by PopCap Games in partnership with Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Reader in Psychology at Goldsmiths University, who examined how parents in the UK and Ireland used games to interact with their children.
Approximately one-third of the 3250 parents who took part in the study play computer games with their children every day, with 80 per cent describing this as quality time.
As far as the Irish portion of the results went, 78 per cent of children showed an improvement in their understanding of technology through playing computer games, 69 per cent were more relaxed after playing, 56 per cent showed improved concentration and almost 1 in 2 reported improved problem-solving ability as a result of computer games.
Those behind the study believe it goes some way towards debunking the myth that playing computer games has a long-term detrimental effect on health.
Cathy Orr, Senior Director of International PR of PopCap Games, said: “As technology becomes even more consumer-friendly, we at PopCap are delighted to see videogames playing an increasing role within family leisure time.
“Videogames are becoming as popular a mainstream lifestyle entertainment as movies or music and finding a place in family life alongside traditional parlour or board games – or in many cases, providing a new videogame format for family favourite board games.
“PopCap has conducted a lot of research to prove that casual games are not only extremely fun but can also aid stress relief - undoubtedly a positive for family members across the board!”
Source: [http://www.joe.ie/health-fitness/health-fitness-news/children-video-games-bad-health-no-more-0015130-1]
GameStop Coupons
Origin Promo Code
Direct2Drive Promo Code
GamersGate Redeem Code
video game coupons
The study was conducted by PopCap Games in partnership with Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Reader in Psychology at Goldsmiths University, who examined how parents in the UK and Ireland used games to interact with their children.
Approximately one-third of the 3250 parents who took part in the study play computer games with their children every day, with 80 per cent describing this as quality time.
As far as the Irish portion of the results went, 78 per cent of children showed an improvement in their understanding of technology through playing computer games, 69 per cent were more relaxed after playing, 56 per cent showed improved concentration and almost 1 in 2 reported improved problem-solving ability as a result of computer games.
Those behind the study believe it goes some way towards debunking the myth that playing computer games has a long-term detrimental effect on health.
Cathy Orr, Senior Director of International PR of PopCap Games, said: “As technology becomes even more consumer-friendly, we at PopCap are delighted to see videogames playing an increasing role within family leisure time.
“Videogames are becoming as popular a mainstream lifestyle entertainment as movies or music and finding a place in family life alongside traditional parlour or board games – or in many cases, providing a new videogame format for family favourite board games.
“PopCap has conducted a lot of research to prove that casual games are not only extremely fun but can also aid stress relief - undoubtedly a positive for family members across the board!”
Source: [http://www.joe.ie/health-fitness/health-fitness-news/children-video-games-bad-health-no-more-0015130-1]
GameStop Coupons
Origin Promo Code
Direct2Drive Promo Code
GamersGate Redeem Code
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Thursday, August 18, 2011
GameStop Reports Weak 2Q
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Weak schedule of new software title releases and lower sales made GameStop Corporation (NYSE:GME), the video game and entertainment software retailer, to post soft second-quarter 2011 results.
The quarterly earnings of 22 cents a share came down 15.4% from 26 cents earned in the prior-year quarter. However, the earnings were a penny ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
According to the market research firm, The NPD Group, the gaming industry appears to be the latest victim of the recent economic turmoil in the U.S.as the industry contracted by 26.0% in the month of July. Further, July’s decline marked the industry’s third-straight month when sales of video games’ software, hardware, and accessories in the U.S. shrinked in double digits.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate came down by a penny prior to the earnings release due to downward revision in the estimates made by 5 out of 17 analysts covering the stock in the last 30 days. None of the analysts have raised their projections.
Revenue and Margins
The Grapevine, Texas based company, GameStop, posted total revenue of $1,743.7 million that came below the Zacks Consensus Revenue Estimate of $1,819 million and declined 3.1% from the year-ago quarter. The retailer stated that comparable-store sales decreased 9.1% during the quarter, reflecting sluggish hardware sales and soft schedule of new software title releases compared to the prior-year period.
By sales mix, new video game hardware sales went down 12.3% to $275.6 million, whereas sales of new video game software decreased 9.6% to $599.8 million. Amid this grim picture, sales of used video games registered a growth of 12% to $633.1 million.
Robust digital sales and a 6.4% decrease in cost of sales facilitated GameStop’s gross profit to increase 5.1% to $543.2 million, whereas gross margin expanded 250 basis points to 31.2%. However, operating income decreased 23% to $53.6 million, whereas operating margin contracted 80 basis points to 3.1%.
Other Details
GameStop ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $224.8 million and net receivables of $44.2 million. During the quarter, the company bought back 1.36 million shares at $25.38 each.
Management Guided
Moving forward, for the third quarter of 2011, GameStop anticipates comparable-store sales to be in the range of 2% to 4%. GameStop expects earnings in the range of 38 cents to 41 cents per share.
For fiscal year 2011, the company stood by its earlier guidance and anticipates earnings in the range of $2.82 to $2.92 per share, reflecting an increase of 6.4% to 10.2% over the last fiscal.
GameStop trimmed its fiscal 2011 comparable-store sales guidance. The company now expects comparable-store sales to increase in the range of 1.0% to 3.0%, reflecting a revenue growth of 4.5% to 6.5%. Earlier the company forecasted a 3.5% to 5.5% increase in comparable-store sales.
Investment Rationale
GameStop, which faces stiff competition from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), is well positioned to benefit from the gaming products and PC amusement software market. The company follows a strategy of store extensions in productive regions and offers the largest collection of games.
Further, GameStop is a significant player in the used gaming products market. The company provides a wide array of used video game products for both current and previous generation platforms. In addition, the market for these products has been resilient to the recent economic downturn.
Moreover, GameStop recently completed the incorporation of GameStop Impulse on its website. In recent times, there has been a sharp rise in consumer spending on digital download, mobile gaming apps, social network games and used games. In such a scenario, GameStop Impulse will help the company to strengthen its foothold.
Going forward, with the increasing demand for online social gaming, the video game industry is marking changes in business dynamics. Moreover, the social gaming market is witnessing healthy growth due to its social and interactive environment compared with the conventional platforms.
However, the decrease in new game releases, deferred discretionary purchases and pricing pressure might dent results for the company. Further, the recent technological advancements have made the industry highly aggressive as buyers now have multiple options to obtain video game accessories and softwares for gaming systems and computers.
Currently, we have a long-term Neutral rating on GameStop. Moreover, GameStop holds a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term Hold recommendation, also correlates with our long-term view.
Source: [http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/08/18/gamestop-reports-weak-2q/]
GameStop Coupons
Origin Promo Code
Direct2Drive Promo Code
GamersGate Redeem Code
Weak schedule of new software title releases and lower sales made GameStop Corporation (NYSE:GME), the video game and entertainment software retailer, to post soft second-quarter 2011 results.
The quarterly earnings of 22 cents a share came down 15.4% from 26 cents earned in the prior-year quarter. However, the earnings were a penny ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
According to the market research firm, The NPD Group, the gaming industry appears to be the latest victim of the recent economic turmoil in the U.S.as the industry contracted by 26.0% in the month of July. Further, July’s decline marked the industry’s third-straight month when sales of video games’ software, hardware, and accessories in the U.S. shrinked in double digits.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate came down by a penny prior to the earnings release due to downward revision in the estimates made by 5 out of 17 analysts covering the stock in the last 30 days. None of the analysts have raised their projections.
Revenue and Margins
The Grapevine, Texas based company, GameStop, posted total revenue of $1,743.7 million that came below the Zacks Consensus Revenue Estimate of $1,819 million and declined 3.1% from the year-ago quarter. The retailer stated that comparable-store sales decreased 9.1% during the quarter, reflecting sluggish hardware sales and soft schedule of new software title releases compared to the prior-year period.
By sales mix, new video game hardware sales went down 12.3% to $275.6 million, whereas sales of new video game software decreased 9.6% to $599.8 million. Amid this grim picture, sales of used video games registered a growth of 12% to $633.1 million.
Robust digital sales and a 6.4% decrease in cost of sales facilitated GameStop’s gross profit to increase 5.1% to $543.2 million, whereas gross margin expanded 250 basis points to 31.2%. However, operating income decreased 23% to $53.6 million, whereas operating margin contracted 80 basis points to 3.1%.
Other Details
GameStop ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $224.8 million and net receivables of $44.2 million. During the quarter, the company bought back 1.36 million shares at $25.38 each.
Management Guided
Moving forward, for the third quarter of 2011, GameStop anticipates comparable-store sales to be in the range of 2% to 4%. GameStop expects earnings in the range of 38 cents to 41 cents per share.
For fiscal year 2011, the company stood by its earlier guidance and anticipates earnings in the range of $2.82 to $2.92 per share, reflecting an increase of 6.4% to 10.2% over the last fiscal.
GameStop trimmed its fiscal 2011 comparable-store sales guidance. The company now expects comparable-store sales to increase in the range of 1.0% to 3.0%, reflecting a revenue growth of 4.5% to 6.5%. Earlier the company forecasted a 3.5% to 5.5% increase in comparable-store sales.
Investment Rationale
GameStop, which faces stiff competition from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), is well positioned to benefit from the gaming products and PC amusement software market. The company follows a strategy of store extensions in productive regions and offers the largest collection of games.
Further, GameStop is a significant player in the used gaming products market. The company provides a wide array of used video game products for both current and previous generation platforms. In addition, the market for these products has been resilient to the recent economic downturn.
Moreover, GameStop recently completed the incorporation of GameStop Impulse on its website. In recent times, there has been a sharp rise in consumer spending on digital download, mobile gaming apps, social network games and used games. In such a scenario, GameStop Impulse will help the company to strengthen its foothold.
Going forward, with the increasing demand for online social gaming, the video game industry is marking changes in business dynamics. Moreover, the social gaming market is witnessing healthy growth due to its social and interactive environment compared with the conventional platforms.
However, the decrease in new game releases, deferred discretionary purchases and pricing pressure might dent results for the company. Further, the recent technological advancements have made the industry highly aggressive as buyers now have multiple options to obtain video game accessories and softwares for gaming systems and computers.
Currently, we have a long-term Neutral rating on GameStop. Moreover, GameStop holds a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates into a short-term Hold recommendation, also correlates with our long-term view.
Source: [http://www.dailymarkets.com/stock/2011/08/18/gamestop-reports-weak-2q/]
GameStop Coupons
Origin Promo Code
Direct2Drive Promo Code
GamersGate Redeem Code
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Game On: Two New Books Traffic in Nostalgia for ’80s Video Game Culture
It’s easy to cast a long shadow of nostalgia across your geeky past, now that you are standing taller.
There’s no shame, no risk of ridicule or reprisal, now that nerds top the food chain. More confident, you might even find yourself admitting, “Sure, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons. Had an 18th-level paladin named Argathon. One righteous orc-slaying dude.’’
I do. I played more than my share of video and role-playing games during a less friendly era, the 1980s. Fantasy and science fiction had not come out of the closet. The financial success of genre franchises had not yet made geekery acceptable. Gaming culture was nonexistent.
A bonus of my then fringe game habit: It felt user-driven, indie, even subversive. When free time, not money, was my currency, gaming created a peculiar, and intimate, community. I inserted real quarters into singular machines shared with others. No Internet. No interruptions from texts. Total immersion in virtual worlds was possible even as, paradoxically, cutting-edge special effects were analog, not digital.
And a game of Donkey Kong, its chunky graphics about as sophisticated as the dungeons I sketched on graph paper, might last only a minute, while a game of D&D, limited to the primitive technology of dice, pencils, and brainwaves, would take months.
Differing both in approach and success level, two new books — Ernest Cline’s dystopian sci-fi novel Ready Player One (Crown, 374 pp. $24.00) and Jeff Ryan’s historical reportage Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America (Portfolio, 292 pp., $26.95) – plumb and pay tribute to the genesis of our gaming culture. To a time when to find out who was the best at Asteroids or Galaga, you hoofed it down to the mall to witness the heroism gracing the “high score’’ screen, where someone’s tag — “ZAK’’ or “LED’’ — was hallowed only in the halls of your local arcade.
Ryan, a video game critic, painstakingly charts the Japanese company Nintendo’s startling success. When its 1980 Space Invaders rip-off Radar Scope failed, technicians retrofitted 2,000 of the machines with a new arcade game, designed by an underling named Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong was born, as was the character Mario, based on a real mustachioed landlord who once showed up at Nintendo’s US headquarters to collect the rent and “grew so incensed he almost jumped up and down.’’ The red overalls and hat came later.
Ryan does a fine job describing Nintendo’s growing rivalry with Atari and Sega and subsequent shrewd moves, as arcades shuttered, to dominate the home console market. Super Mario Bros. became the “dense’’ game-changing killer app, Ryan writes, which “called for deep exploration instead of facile button mashing.’’ A new generation of gamers could explore endlessly, wandering tubes, hopping platforms, and collecting shells and coins. Nabbing the high score wasn’t the point. Mario helped kill quarter-based game culture.
Ryan can be insightful, and his prose colorful, but also distracting. Images and metaphors compete and clash – the Zucker Brothers follow Derrida, a music reference is slammed cheek-by-jowl with a baseball analogy. At times, the text seems translated from the Japanese. What is “a nebula’s improvement in graphics’’? A “veritable sleuth of unsold Teddy Ruxpins’’? It’s also difficult to picture the graphical evolution of Mario and his game world when the book has no illustrations.
Most frustratingly, we never hear directly from any Nintendo designers, not even Miyamoto or company head Hiroshi Yamauchi. Curiously little on-the-ground reporting of personal travails or internal corporate tensions. After the first 100 pages, the narrative devolves into a cheery laundry list of game releases. It’s as if Ryan reported the book from the distance of the Internet.
Still, Super Mario remains an important link to understanding how we got from Donkey Kong to Wii, and why the wee Jumpman still rules. “Mario is the id: working off of instinct, never having much of a plan, always able to leap into the middle of things. We all become younger as we play Mario, because when we’re Mario we simply play.’’
More so than Ryan, Cline banks on blatant nostalgia for our geeky pasts. The year is 2044 and the young protagonist of Ready Player One, 17-year-old orphan Wade Watts, narrates his own progress in an elaborate, online scavenger hunt. He lives as an economic refuge in a crime-ridden shanty town, “The Great Recession was now entering its third decade,’’ Watts says, and like many who have given up on the “real world,” he spends his waking hours as an avatar, named Parzival, in a massive, Matrix-like virtual space called OASIS.
Created by a reclusive, Reagan-era game designer, the game melds Tolkienesque riddles with ’80s pop arcana – from Matthew Broderick’s lines in WarGames to dungeons designed by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. Solve the puzzles and you inherit the game designer’s vast fortune. An old-fashioned “high score’’ leader board pops up periodically in the narrative to remind us who’s winning.
Such is the post-apocalyptic, nerd-friendly premise of Ready Player One. Watts is one of thousands of other players known as “gunters,” or “egg hunters” because they are looking for Easter eggs, or clues, hidden in the thousands of designer virtual lands that populate the OASIS. Watts steeps himself in the period, eschewing the world of 2044 to effectively live and breathe the era’s most mundane factoids, memorizing characters from The Breakfast Club, plot points from Star Wars, tactics for an obscure arcade game like Joust. Clearly having fun with the reader, and himself, Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader, “Remember the TRS-80? Wasn’t it cool?’’ The conceit is a smart one, and we happily root for Watts/Parzival and his gaming buddies on their quest for the big egg — and hope they win before a villainous, corporate-run gaming guild declares “game over.’’
Not that the novel is without its problems. Cline, the screenwriter who gave us Fanboys, oddly chooses a first-person narrator. What is the occasion for a 17-year-old explaining the plot of Blade Runner, or that “ ‘2112,’ Rush’s classic sci-fi-themed concept album’’ hit record stores “in 1976, back when most music was sold on twelve-inch vinyl records’’? Long, awkward passages of exposition bog down the story, and conflict with Watts’s own distinctive narrative voice. A third-person, roving point of view would more logically allow for these passages of authorial intrusion. Also a bummer: Much of the action is virtual, statically describing Watts’s online moves: “I took a screenshot of this illustration and placed it in the corner of my display.’’
One can picture much of this working better on the big screen, where asides won’t be needed. We’ll hear “She Bop” on the soundtrack or see a character wearing a “Muppet Show” T shirt and get it. No surprise, Cline’s movie adaptation of Ready Player One has already been sold.
But ignore these narrative hiccups and Ready Player One provides a most excellent ride. Once the story is up and running, and the novel blasts to its world-ending climactic battle, I found the adventure story and its revenge of the dorks dream fully satisfying.
Both Cline and Ryan’s books lavish in the toys and pastimes of our youth. And also nostalgia, which may soft-focus the hard and real edges, and yet we’re happy to lavish in it nonetheless. We aging humans traffic in it. Perhaps we must to make sense of our past lives.
Like the film Super 8, these two books play also into a final fantasy: that things were once simpler. Today, some attribute the violence in Norway, unfairly, to video games. Suddenly ’80s pop culture looks less troubled. But of course, the arcade and role-playing games of yore were controversial scourges bent on the destruction of youth. Remember?
Source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/game-on-two-new-books-traffic-in-nostalgia-for-80s-video-game-culture/
Check out Video Game Coupons.org for the best GameStop coupons, Origin Promo Codes and Direct2drive Promo Codes
There’s no shame, no risk of ridicule or reprisal, now that nerds top the food chain. More confident, you might even find yourself admitting, “Sure, I used to play Dungeons & Dragons. Had an 18th-level paladin named Argathon. One righteous orc-slaying dude.’’
I do. I played more than my share of video and role-playing games during a less friendly era, the 1980s. Fantasy and science fiction had not come out of the closet. The financial success of genre franchises had not yet made geekery acceptable. Gaming culture was nonexistent.
A bonus of my then fringe game habit: It felt user-driven, indie, even subversive. When free time, not money, was my currency, gaming created a peculiar, and intimate, community. I inserted real quarters into singular machines shared with others. No Internet. No interruptions from texts. Total immersion in virtual worlds was possible even as, paradoxically, cutting-edge special effects were analog, not digital.
And a game of Donkey Kong, its chunky graphics about as sophisticated as the dungeons I sketched on graph paper, might last only a minute, while a game of D&D, limited to the primitive technology of dice, pencils, and brainwaves, would take months.
Differing both in approach and success level, two new books — Ernest Cline’s dystopian sci-fi novel Ready Player One (Crown, 374 pp. $24.00) and Jeff Ryan’s historical reportage Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America (Portfolio, 292 pp., $26.95) – plumb and pay tribute to the genesis of our gaming culture. To a time when to find out who was the best at Asteroids or Galaga, you hoofed it down to the mall to witness the heroism gracing the “high score’’ screen, where someone’s tag — “ZAK’’ or “LED’’ — was hallowed only in the halls of your local arcade.
Ryan, a video game critic, painstakingly charts the Japanese company Nintendo’s startling success. When its 1980 Space Invaders rip-off Radar Scope failed, technicians retrofitted 2,000 of the machines with a new arcade game, designed by an underling named Shigeru Miyamoto. Donkey Kong was born, as was the character Mario, based on a real mustachioed landlord who once showed up at Nintendo’s US headquarters to collect the rent and “grew so incensed he almost jumped up and down.’’ The red overalls and hat came later.
Ryan does a fine job describing Nintendo’s growing rivalry with Atari and Sega and subsequent shrewd moves, as arcades shuttered, to dominate the home console market. Super Mario Bros. became the “dense’’ game-changing killer app, Ryan writes, which “called for deep exploration instead of facile button mashing.’’ A new generation of gamers could explore endlessly, wandering tubes, hopping platforms, and collecting shells and coins. Nabbing the high score wasn’t the point. Mario helped kill quarter-based game culture.
Ryan can be insightful, and his prose colorful, but also distracting. Images and metaphors compete and clash – the Zucker Brothers follow Derrida, a music reference is slammed cheek-by-jowl with a baseball analogy. At times, the text seems translated from the Japanese. What is “a nebula’s improvement in graphics’’? A “veritable sleuth of unsold Teddy Ruxpins’’? It’s also difficult to picture the graphical evolution of Mario and his game world when the book has no illustrations.
Most frustratingly, we never hear directly from any Nintendo designers, not even Miyamoto or company head Hiroshi Yamauchi. Curiously little on-the-ground reporting of personal travails or internal corporate tensions. After the first 100 pages, the narrative devolves into a cheery laundry list of game releases. It’s as if Ryan reported the book from the distance of the Internet.
Still, Super Mario remains an important link to understanding how we got from Donkey Kong to Wii, and why the wee Jumpman still rules. “Mario is the id: working off of instinct, never having much of a plan, always able to leap into the middle of things. We all become younger as we play Mario, because when we’re Mario we simply play.’’
More so than Ryan, Cline banks on blatant nostalgia for our geeky pasts. The year is 2044 and the young protagonist of Ready Player One, 17-year-old orphan Wade Watts, narrates his own progress in an elaborate, online scavenger hunt. He lives as an economic refuge in a crime-ridden shanty town, “The Great Recession was now entering its third decade,’’ Watts says, and like many who have given up on the “real world,” he spends his waking hours as an avatar, named Parzival, in a massive, Matrix-like virtual space called OASIS.
Created by a reclusive, Reagan-era game designer, the game melds Tolkienesque riddles with ’80s pop arcana – from Matthew Broderick’s lines in WarGames to dungeons designed by D&D co-creator Gary Gygax. Solve the puzzles and you inherit the game designer’s vast fortune. An old-fashioned “high score’’ leader board pops up periodically in the narrative to remind us who’s winning.
Such is the post-apocalyptic, nerd-friendly premise of Ready Player One. Watts is one of thousands of other players known as “gunters,” or “egg hunters” because they are looking for Easter eggs, or clues, hidden in the thousands of designer virtual lands that populate the OASIS. Watts steeps himself in the period, eschewing the world of 2044 to effectively live and breathe the era’s most mundane factoids, memorizing characters from The Breakfast Club, plot points from Star Wars, tactics for an obscure arcade game like Joust. Clearly having fun with the reader, and himself, Cline stuffs his novel with a cornucopia of pop culture, as if to wink to the reader, “Remember the TRS-80? Wasn’t it cool?’’ The conceit is a smart one, and we happily root for Watts/Parzival and his gaming buddies on their quest for the big egg — and hope they win before a villainous, corporate-run gaming guild declares “game over.’’
Not that the novel is without its problems. Cline, the screenwriter who gave us Fanboys, oddly chooses a first-person narrator. What is the occasion for a 17-year-old explaining the plot of Blade Runner, or that “ ‘2112,’ Rush’s classic sci-fi-themed concept album’’ hit record stores “in 1976, back when most music was sold on twelve-inch vinyl records’’? Long, awkward passages of exposition bog down the story, and conflict with Watts’s own distinctive narrative voice. A third-person, roving point of view would more logically allow for these passages of authorial intrusion. Also a bummer: Much of the action is virtual, statically describing Watts’s online moves: “I took a screenshot of this illustration and placed it in the corner of my display.’’
One can picture much of this working better on the big screen, where asides won’t be needed. We’ll hear “She Bop” on the soundtrack or see a character wearing a “Muppet Show” T shirt and get it. No surprise, Cline’s movie adaptation of Ready Player One has already been sold.
But ignore these narrative hiccups and Ready Player One provides a most excellent ride. Once the story is up and running, and the novel blasts to its world-ending climactic battle, I found the adventure story and its revenge of the dorks dream fully satisfying.
Both Cline and Ryan’s books lavish in the toys and pastimes of our youth. And also nostalgia, which may soft-focus the hard and real edges, and yet we’re happy to lavish in it nonetheless. We aging humans traffic in it. Perhaps we must to make sense of our past lives.
Like the film Super 8, these two books play also into a final fantasy: that things were once simpler. Today, some attribute the violence in Norway, unfairly, to video games. Suddenly ’80s pop culture looks less troubled. But of course, the arcade and role-playing games of yore were controversial scourges bent on the destruction of youth. Remember?
Source: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/08/game-on-two-new-books-traffic-in-nostalgia-for-80s-video-game-culture/
Check out Video Game Coupons.org for the best GameStop coupons, Origin Promo Codes and Direct2drive Promo Codes
Monday, August 15, 2011
Video Game coupons: The week in Review
Gamers hit back at cop GTA UK riot blame
Gamefly's PC Game Rental Service: Is There Really an Audience?
NPD: Retail Sales of Video Games Tumbled in July
Swiss Police Attempt to Ban THE DARKNESS II
U.S. Video Games Industry Undergoes 20 Percent Reduction in Sales during July
Video games industry: Rise of the 'bedroom' developer
Check out Video Game Coupons.org for the best GameStop coupons, Origin Promo Codes and Direct2drive Promo Codes
Gamefly's PC Game Rental Service: Is There Really an Audience?
NPD: Retail Sales of Video Games Tumbled in July
Swiss Police Attempt to Ban THE DARKNESS II
U.S. Video Games Industry Undergoes 20 Percent Reduction in Sales during July
Video games industry: Rise of the 'bedroom' developer
Check out Video Game Coupons.org for the best GameStop coupons, Origin Promo Codes and Direct2drive Promo Codes
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