Hack Text » upcoming games

Four ways to fail upward with content

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 02:13:53 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

Entrepreneurs are often told to fail quickly, but when you’re a writer, your primary product is content. What can you do to build the same mentality into written text?

When start-ups seek to fail frequently, they’re really aiming to try new things and to not be afraid to throw out what doesn’t work. If you publish often, the same mentality should apply.

1. Explore your topic.

Don’t be afraid to go obscure and see what works. You can find out if your audience is interested through Google Analytics, tracking click-through rates or using tools like Lijit or Apture which track searches people make on your site.

As you develop more content, you can build on what interests you and your audience. Don’t be afraid to throw out odd or off-beat content and don’t be afraid to go another direction if there is no response.

2. Take a stand.

Emotion-free analysis does little to engage readers. Take a look at any media outlet and you can see the mix of opinion with reporting. Find something that you can get passionate about and write about it. Feel our your topic and see if there is a place where you can carve out your own stake. Run your content by others, see what topics interest them and where you can build your own stake.

3. Be controversial.

The web is a notorious echo chamber. There may be times when there’s something that you and masses disagree on. Don’t be afraid to take them on. If you are saying it, there are probably other people thinking it.

4. Modify your style.

The internet has a style book, so do most writers, but when you are building your own content you’ve got to find your own path. Examine your text to see what sort of unique phrases you use and build on them to make your content stand out. Establish a dialog with readers through your writing, building on what creates responses and throwing away the stuff that doesn’t.

Star Trek Online Lives Again

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 11:57:00 +0000

Cross-posted from Boldly Play, a new blog covering Star Trek Online.

In an AP article released Friday, Cryptic Studios, which had taken the reigns on the Star Trek Online project, gave the first hint of what the game would be like.

It seems that Cryptic will be choosing to discard the direction of the P2 team, which was the last group to work on the project.

“Pretty much, we’re not using anything that Perpetual gave us outside of the concept art. No engine, no tech, no art, outside of the concept,” said Cryptic’s Chief Creative Officer Jack Emmert, in an interview with GameSpy.

In an interview with the Associated Press Emmert said that players will have the option of either playing as a Starfleet or Klingon Captain, with customizable characters from established Star Trek races (including the Gorn!).

Emmert describes the gameplay as very much in line with the television series and movies.

“You’ll venture through space exploring new civilizations and life-forms,” said Emmert. “You’ll also beam down to planets and have adventures inside your ship. It’s a galactic-wide game. There’s going to be tons of space to investigate. We have a great system for exploration, which will allow for almost infinite possibilities.”

The game is to be set in a period “a few generations following the last ‘Trek’ film,” according to the AP. GameSpy has the following from their interview:

The game’s setting: sometime in the 25th century, an exact stardate to be revealed at the Trek con unveiling. It’s a time of expansion for the Federation, enabled by technological advances suggestive of the capabilities of the biggest threat it’s ever faced. Transwarp conduits, once the strict purview of the Borg, are now operated by the Federation, allowing faster, farther travel to previously inaccessible areas of the galaxy. As for it being a period of peace, the fact the game is being designed around two separate factions strongly suggests that they’ll be at odds. But Emmert wasn’t prepared to confirm this.

Perhaps the biggest change for the long expectant fans will be the switch from P2′s vision of multiple players on one ship to a different experience, in which each player is their own captain with their own ship.

However, though this is the direction for the current work on the game, Cryptic hasn’t ruled the old approach out.

“It may be a direction we go in the future,” said Emmert to GameSpy.

As with P2′s development, it sounds as if the Star Trek production community is interested in helping out. P2, at one point, had a number of people who had been involved in the cannon Star Trek involved with their team.

“Some people have contacted me that are involved in other aspects of the Star Trek IP,” Emmert said.

More News of the Duke

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Yea, I know, it has been a while since a real blog post. Don’t worry, it’ll come. I’ve just been busy. In the mean time, more news of the upcoming Duke Nukem game, including a video clip of some gameplay. Check it out.

GTA4: I Fall to the Power

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:27:00 +0000

So we are now, officially, almost 2 hours past the release of GTA4. Tomorrow it will be mine.

The original plan was for me to wait, like always, until the price came down to a reasonable amount. However, my girlfriend PG has promised to pay for half, on the condition that I review the game for our school’s news site, ConnectMason. I agreed to it. Hey, this is a golden opportunity. Of course, this means that I did not have the opportunity to get the game complete with Glock and Prostitute, but it does mean I’ll likely have to do some driving around to find a copy.

After all the raving about how amazing this game is, now, on morning of it’s release, I already have seen one(at least partially) negative review, though Penny Arcade isn’t the gold standard.

With the exception of the accidentally looked at PA review, I’m going into this cold. In order to be free to absorb the game, I’m not reading any other reviews. This is a big one, we’ll have to see what happens.

The Duke’s Been Spotted

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:13:00 +0000

Shacknews has actually seen Duke Nukem Forever. No joke, they actually saw the game.

It was reported to be good. I’d hope so, it’s been a very very long time since the last Nukem game and this market is ready for a shooter with The Duke’s sense of humor.

Breaking News: P2 Out As Star Trek Online Developer

Aram Zucker-Scharff — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:13:00 +0000

I know it is incredibly geeky, but I am and continue to be really really excited about a Star Trek MMO… which is why this latest newsbreak from ‘the company previously known as Perpetual” is aggravating as anything.

P2 Entertainment – formerly Perpetual Entertainment – has ceased development on Star Trek Online, according to multiple sources at the San Francisco based developer. The news does not, however, mean that the game is canceled. The license, as well as the game’s content – but not the code – have been transferred to another Bay Area development studio where work will continue. It is not entirely clear at this time what this means for the individual developers who worked on the project at P2.

As a company, P2 Entertainment will continue on with their profitable Perpetual Platform, which has been licensed to industry leaders like BioWare, and refocus their core business on the casual games market.

Without the code, whoever takes over Star Trek Online will be faced with a lot of work to complete the project, which means that fans may have longer to wait for a completed Star Trek Online.

P2 Entertainment had no comment on the story.

WarCry will continue to follow this story as it develops.

From: http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/breakingnews/2802-Breaking-News-P2-Out-As-Star-Trek-Online-Developer