Category: Random Ramblings

Anything that catches my fancy as a topic I want to cover. Truly random crap.

Bioware to build an MMO?

(via Joystiq)

Gamebanshee has an article up with some details on Bioware’s opening of a development office in Austin, Texas.  Word is the folks there will be working on a new massively multiplayer game (MMO).

BioWare Austin Has Already Begun Work On A Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) title; the new game will mark BioWare’s debut in the Massively Multiplayer Online space. BioWare has recruited some of the top talent in MMO and RPG development, both to manage the development efforts at BioWare Austin and to collaborate with the experienced team at BioWare Edmonton, to develop a game that combines the best of BioWare’s great past games with a compelling persistent online experience. Joining the Austin team as lead designer is James Ohlen, BioWare’s Creative Director, whose previous credits include lead or co -lead design roles on Star Wars®: Knights of the Old Republic(.TM), Neverwinter Nights(.TM), Baldur’s Gate(.TM) and Baldur’s Gate II(.TM). Also leading the BWA team are MMO veterans Richard Vogel and Gordon Walton. Richard Vogel Brings 15 years of experience to BioWare Austin, previously serving as VP of Product Development for Sony Online Entertainment’s Austin studio, as well as launching Ultima Online(.TM) as a senior producer at Origin. Gordon Walton Recently Served As VP, studio manager and executive producer at Sony Online Entertainment as well as VP and Executive Producer at Electronic Arts.

If you don’t recognize those names, just let me assure you that’s some big-name talent coming in to the office.  Guess I’ll have another MMO to get in to once I tire of City of Heroes.

[tags]MMO, Bioware, Austin[/tags]

Blind must pass driver’s education in Chicago

Here is an excellent case of rules taking precedence over common sense.  In Chicago, apparently, no one on the educating side thought about fixing the problem with requiring the educated to pass driver’s ed, even if they are blind or sight impaired.

Most high school students eagerly await the day they pass driver’s education class. But 16-year-old Mayra Ramirez is indifferent about it.  Ramirez is blind, yet she and dozens of other visually impaired sophomores in Chicago schools are required to pass a written rules-of-the-road exam in order to graduate — a rule they say takes time away from subjects they might actually use.

Not everyone is oblivious to the problem:

“It defies logic to require blind students to take this course,” Meta Minton, spokeswoman for the state Board of Education, told the Chicago Tribune in a Friday story.

And here’s someone showing the typical bureaucratic response (that would be lay blame on the suffering party):

“I can’t explain why up to this point no one has raised the issue and suggested a better way for visually impaired students to opt out of driver’s ed,” said Chicago schools spokesman Michael Vaughn.

In other words, it’s not *our* fault these people have to do this – they haven’t asked out of it.  Never mind that it doesn’t make any sense. 

[tags]Driver’s ed, bureaucracy[/tags]

Don’t wear this belt buckle, you perverts

(via Kotaku)

OK, I know some gamer geeks somewhere will really like this belt buckle. I get the appeal of the retro gaming scene. I can see why someone would want to own the little joystick in this picture. But please, for the sake of everyone else in the world, don’t actually wear this thing. It’s not funny, and I don’t think anyone will have any problem figuring out what you are suggesting – and no, it’s not that you like playing Atari 2600 games.

joystick_belt_buckle.jpg

[tags]Gaming, joystick, retro belt buckle[/tags]

Prepare yourself for Oblivion

(via Gamers with Jobs via Dubious Quality)

Read the entire collection of texts from Morrowind.  This is just the kind of thing you need to remind yourself everything about the history of The Elder Scrolls world.  If you’ve played the game, you probably remember how many books there are in the Morrowind world, and how much reading you can do outside of things directly related to advancing the story.  The designers at Bethesda seem to put a lot of effort into fleshing out their world.  Please don’t let it go to waste.  Head to gamesource and catch up on all the Morrowind reading you missed the first time.

[tags]Gaming, Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls, Oblivion[/tags]

Gizmonda, a history

(via Joystiq)

I’m just going to steal Joystiq’s write-up. I actually haven’t followed this much more closely than watching the headlines at a few gaming sites and skimming articles at Joystiq and Kotaku, but this flow chart sure helps…

gamerevolution_gizmondo_flowchart.jpg

Been trying to follow the Gizmondo Ferrari story but can’t seem to keep the facts straight? Well we don’t personally see how a simple little story about an illegally imported excusive Italian sportscar, a video game exec for handheld has been Gizmondo, the Swedish Uppsala mafia, Homeland Security, a mysterious ammunition clip, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and a transportation service for old people run out of an auto repair shop is the least bit confusing at all, but some of you apparently required some visual aids.

Enter Game Revolution’s fun-for-all-ages flow chart, the piece de resistance of their extensive Gizmondo coverage aptly called “Gizmondo Bizarro.” It’s only a matter of time before they turn this into a made-for-TV movie featuring Eric Roberts as Stefan Ericksson in what will be heralded as “a gripping performance.” They’ll call it Crash and Burn: The Real Life Story of the Gizmondo Saga.

[tags]Gizmondo[/tags]

Love for zombies, MMO style

Finally, a game we can get in to where we get to be the zombie.  And it’s an MMO!

Exanimus is an online massively multiplayer game created in a world where the dead live and roam the earth eating the flesh of the living. While most of the world is dead, there are small pockets of survivors that exist in barricaded cities across the globe. Players of Exanimus will have the option of playing as a living survivor or as one of the dead roaming the earth. Exanimus will allow players to experience a MMO based in a horror genre by creating a dark and visually “intense” environment.
Exanimus is expected to be rated “Mature” and not intended for anyone under the age of 18.

[tags]MMO, MMORPG, Zombies[/tags]

A 19 inch laptop sighting

(via Engadget)

Here’s my first 19 inch laptop sighting.  Has anyone got any other links to different ones?

CALGARY, Alberta–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 9, 2006–VoodooPC, the world’s leading architect of highly personalized, one-of-a-kind high performance PCs, today announced it has expanded its award-winning notebook line with the introduction of the Voodoo ENVY Heavyweight u:909 Notebook, the world’s largest and fastest mobile gamebook. Measuring 17.5″ x 12.5″ x 1.75″ and weighing in at 16 pounds, the Voodoo ENVY Heavyweight u:909 Notebook is powered by the AMD Turion 64 processor and is THE ideal alternative for anyone looking to replace their desktop without sacrificing performance.

And if you are wondering, it costs around $5000, comes with a dual-layer DVD burner, runs at 1680×1050, and offers dual nVidia or dual ATI video cards.   I’m guessing lap shield and nuclear power plant are extra cost items.

[tags]VoodooPC, 19 inch laptop[/tags]

Work out harder, recover more quickly

I don’t know if this is contrary to conventional wisdom or just unexpected, but it’s making the news – The Harder You Exercise, the Quicker You Recover.

Researchers studied the exercise regimens and recovery times of 25 men competing in an Ironman triathlon, a three-part race consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle leg, and a 26.2-mile marathon run.

Although this competition is much more taxing than your standard cardio kickboxing class, researchers were surprised to see how quickly the athletes’ bodies recovered. It takes about two week for muscles and tendons to fuly recover after an Ironman triathlon.

But one day after the race the competitors’ heart rates, cardiac output, and blood pressures had returned to baseline levels. Within three days, other system changes brought on by activity also reverted to normal.

[tags]Exercise[/tags]

Make mine with frikkin’ laser beams

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) has taken another page from science fiction writer William Gibson’s book by creating a neural implant to enable engineers to remotely manipulate a shark’s brain signals. This would eventually allow them to control the animal’s movements and possibly decode their perceptions.

Remote controlled sharks? Awesome. You know Dr. Evil would want some.

[tags]Sharks, DARPA[/tags]