http://textpattern.com/?v=4.0.6 http://nielsthooft.com/ writer + games expert Fri, 08 May 2009 21:03:05 GMT “I remember being on a panel with Harvey Smith a few years ago and he was talking about how he wanted to make a game about death. Harvey was talking about DEATH as a force, as the thing that rips lives apart, that turns the circle of life. You know, a deep, meaningful game.
And I loved it. Loved the promise of it.
But I asked him then: what is the actual GAMEPLAY!?!? What do you DO with the controller?!?!” That’s a really good question, and for a while I pondered it so much, I almost lost my faith in videogames.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/what-do-you-do-with-the-controller Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:42:40 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-06-03:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/850e2c63c949b35cf529ac3db26ab1a9 ‘Birdmen and the Casual Fallacy’ by Sean Malstrom there’s a phrase I really like: ‘non-fiction game’, for things like ‘Wii Fit’ and ‘Brain Training’, but also ‘Flight Simulator’ and ‘The Sims’. It’s so obvious that it should stick.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/non-fiction-games Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:26:37 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-06-03:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/90edaaf58cecdebaf042c9e0cb4de179 “the cart size of the DS makes it impossible to put out ports of any of our old graphic adventures.” Yeah, that’s because they’re only an inch in diameter, while your games used to come on these huge floppy disks, right?]]> http://nielsthooft.com/thats-not-going-to-fit Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:23:27 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-06-03:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/ad4c95767ec108bb51feb028fdc92361 “We don’t need Niko’s idiot cousin to tell us we’re about to be betrayed — in Portal, we actually act out the story as part of the gameplay.” Or as someone else wrote, but I forgot who: in games, we shouldn’t tell, we shouldn’t show, instead we should have the player do.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/dont-show-dont-tell Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:10:36 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-06-03:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/3d6ee3463a0f5569dd6721420961d96b “Why Japan didn’t create the iPod.” I’d guess because countries generally don’t create electronics appliances. According to this author, however, it all comes down to the language. Gives some insight into why consoles took off so incredibly in Japan.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/why-japan-didnt-create-the-ipod Fri, 30 May 2008 17:57:45 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-30:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/f0c82549443cb24f7257b6042c983055 “‘Doom’ is a great game, but ‘Half-Life’ is a great narrative.” Even though Half-Life was released ten years ago, the sense that you’re really part of a story (and not just watching a story for a bit, then playing a game, then watching some story again) is still something few games evoke. Most recently, I felt it while playing Half-Life 2.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/half-life-is-a-great-narrative Mon, 12 May 2008 20:08:26 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-12:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/0fe207587ae7f6aa8e5b6134f0554567 “Microsoft, somehow, is letting Sony keep fighting in the battle for second place even without exclusive killer apps. What happens when it has them?” The sales curve for Xbox 360 seems to have flattened for the last year or so, a sign that somehow it only appeals to a limited audience. Now that PlayStation 3 is picking up steam, that sales curve is going to be ripped to shreds.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/xbox-360-aint-doing-too-well-but-why Mon, 12 May 2008 20:01:24 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-12:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/41e16c585ced1ba99b18204dd57b60fe “We as outsiders to this whole gaming industry have the ability and the license to probe and ask questions to figure out what’s really going on and to get to the bottom of things and change the conversation from the marketing-driven factors of gaming.” Words of wisdom from MTV News reporter Stephen Totilo, who’s doing some of the most interesting things in games journalism.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/stephen-totilo-on-games-journalism Mon, 12 May 2008 19:54:26 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-12:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/4cb8b3f9f972f95d3e042effec58567c “being a loyal fan of Blizzard’s series, […] handed it over to Blizzard completely gratis”. One piece of advice: never donate your domain to a company that makes a billion a year.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/diablo3com-for-free Mon, 12 May 2008 19:48:13 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-12:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/5e3c384cea7294f718ca89170e4ecfba “I’m sensitive about time. When I have to be somewhere, I’m rarely late. I get anxious about missing things. So I have a giant pet peeve with games that can’t consistently handle a perception of time – when they act like the clock’s ticking, but it ain’t.” Like in GTA IV.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/sensitive-about-time Mon, 12 May 2008 19:44:46 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-05-12:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/f73edabc016162edb0a2ed94d1b805f4 “When [Activision CEO Bobby Kotick] says Guitar Hero isn’t just about guitars, that franchise is clearly stepping into a minefield of potential failure. […] A friend of mine once told me the design document of one of the modern adventure-style Sonic games started with the words ‘Sonic is not just about running really fast’. […] Once a company wants a franchise to be something it’s not, they have to be really lucky not to screw it up.”]]> http://nielsthooft.com/guitar-hero-isnt-just-about-guitars Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:42:03 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-04-22:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/718f16aae09d384ceac51505cc352c4d “I’m used to living in a world drunk on Spore anticipation […]. But among the newbies, there was a significant amount of uncertainty and performance anxiety. People weren’t sure they would be able to build something, even with encouragement and example. One even said, over my shoulder, ‘I’m not sure I’m creative in that way.’” The cartoony style (that crystallized along the way) answers some of my concerns, but I still doubt Spore will come close to the success of ‘The Sims’.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/is-spore-for-everyone Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:57:53 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-31:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/efca75de4fc3ca4d866aed938f4b8f2b is really interesting. I’m already in touch with the developers to do an interview and will hopefully write a newspaper article about it soon.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/the-graveyard Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:24:31 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/7bf2cf933261c4ba795e2776f510728c great games that should be possible will have emerged. So far there’s one iPhone game I’d love to play: Trism.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/iphone-games-trism Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:20:27 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/2a8ac054400d112173be739983069fb9 “Packet Garden captures information about how you use the internet and uses this stored information to grow a private world you can later explore.” This reminds me of an idea I had ages ago: a game in which your actions result in the defragmentation of your hard drive.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/packet-garden-and-the-defragmentation-game Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:16:18 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/d4fea27167e831e2caeba55584c1598c four types of fun in games: Hard Fun, Easy Fun, People Fun and Serious Fun. David Sirlin applied this scheme to ‘Super Mario Galaxy’.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/four-types-of-fun-super-mario-galaxy Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:12:23 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/134a2fd84d986a55c9b9336668f2e7b3 “World of Warcraft is an environment for people to create games, a web of intertwined systems that are all connected through common terrain. Some of these games rely on other games in the environment (most of them, for example, rely on leveling up) but all of them are different games.”]]> http://nielsthooft.com/world-of-warcraft-is-an-environment-to-create-games Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:09:40 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/021bc2a7e642c6e32395f2ae6aa7ca58 some intriguing statistics on their blog, including the fact that the game made more than $100,000. I love how open they are about their achievements.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/desktop-tower-defense-made-100000 Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:03:18 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/26359f72cac505d7830f71d96e9e990b “…old media have vastly more shocking content than video games… a prime example of a book that children are encouraged to read is the Bible. […] The King James version has ‘harlot’ in it 48 times, ‘sodomite’ 5 times, ‘fornicator’ 5 times, ‘smite’ 133 times, ‘kill’ 208 times and ‘maim’ 7 times.” Well, just this morning I gunned down a couple hundred zombies in a mere six or seven minutes. Games are all about repetition – turning some violent games into a hypnotizing killing drill. Which is what frightens some observers. Sure, it’s a fun argument, but the Bible really doesn’t compare.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/is-the-bible-more-violent-than-games Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:53:22 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/fadb61922dcc66be4e31753433c321ea “I’m convinced that [‘Killer 7’ and ‘No More Heroes’ creator Suda Goichi’s] aesthetic vision and artistic sensibility are mirrored in the works of the maverick filmmakers who launched the French New Wave.” That makes these games sound very intriguing. However, I tried to like Killer 7 and failed so hard, that I feel no inclination whatsoever to check out Goichi’s latest.]]> http://nielsthooft.com/suda-goichi-and-the-french-new-wave Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:46:45 GMT Niels 't Hooft tag:nielsthooft.com,2008-03-27:f88bfa0a7737ddc22d49e58208e9b4b7/bcff776c26ff32bb297e3b2c6ca098ef