See also my resources on interactive fiction (text adventure games), programming in Inform 7, making games in Scratch, and coding hypertext stories in Twine.
Video-game characters in a comic strip were not unheard of, but the remarkable thing about Anez’s comic was that rather than using drawings of the characters, he used the actual video-game character art — “sprites” in programming jargon — along with some simple backgrounds and word balloons. The effect re-created the feel of the game…
A history of videogames, just as a history of any software “type” or “genre,” will reveal an open-source origin and a legacy of “borrowers” and “derivers” hoping to capitalize on what was originally free, whether through buying up copyrights or creating enhanced commercial versions. With an increase in the size of a software corporation comes…
I doubt anyone could accuse me of literature. Online text games tend to have quite a different emphasis than a book. I am not trying to tell a story as much as I am trying to describe a location and an atmosphere. I try to make the descriptions detailed and interesting enough for people to…
To paraphrase Matt Barton‘s hyperbolic words playfully, let’s remove our lips from the poisoned suckbottle of proprietary software and switch to the wholesome breast of open source. —Clancy Ratliff —Taking Copyfighters to Task (CultureCat) Beware, open-source activists, if your praxis is not as pure as your theory! In the theater world, it turned out that the…
A survey of 1,309 pupils aged between 10 and 14 and from 24 different schools found alarming levels of ignorance about the invasion of Normandy 60 years ago. —Hastings and Henry —D-Day 1899 and President Denzel Washington is leading liberation of New Zealand from the Nazi’s (Telegraph) One teacher at Great Addington Church of England Primary…
A parody helps change a corrections policy at The New York Times. An online critic’s query ends a career at the Chicago Tribune. Bloggers’ scrutiny is making its mark on traditional journalism. —Mark Glaser —To Their Surprise, Bloggers Are Force for Change in Big Media (Online Journalism Review) Another great suggestion from Rosemary.
As an example of the new pricing plan, suppose you posted an entry to your blog reading, ?I had a cheese sandwich for lunch today. Then, I got behind the slowest woman in the grocery-store line! Grrrr!? By my count (TypeKey will handle the sentence diagramming automatically in MT3.0014d), this entry contains 6 adjectives/adverbs, 4…
Wikipedia is both an encyclopedia and a wiki community. You can edit articles on Wikipedia right now! Learn how to contribute with the tutorial (or just play around in our sandbox). For more information, post comments at the Village Pump, read the Help directory and our policies, contact other Wikipedians, and keep track of what’s…
Writing bad poetry is easy when you disregard meter, pace, and rhyming scheme. Just make sure to follow a few simple guidelines: 1. Never write about anything cheerful. Remember, you are a tortured artist. Be one. 2. Be sure to use the following words at least once per sentence, no fewer than 50 times per…
The final internet chatroom exchange took place on 28 June last year. “U want me 2 take him 2 trafford centre and kill him in the middle of trafford centre??” said one message. “Yes,” came the reply. Less than 24 hours later, a 14-year-old boy was critically ill in hospital with stab wounds in the…
Jurors sentenced Carmack to seven years for convictions in March of forgery, identity theft and falsifying business records. He must serve a minimum 3 1/2 years. —Carolyn Thompson —Spammer Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison (AP/MyWay) O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
Should you happen to find yourself captivated watching slender Lara bound lithely through Tomb Raider’s dark, moist-looking caverns, you will do so without quite forgetting that Lara is, in a sense, you. Like the stranded Marine in Doom, the progenitor of first-person shooters, Lara awaits your input before she makes her decisions. Lara and Doom’s…
A social studies office worker said she was fired this week after administrators discovered provocative posts in her online journal, including threats to fellow workers and superiors. —Leon Neyfakh —Online Weblog Leads To Firing (Harvard Crimson) An online weblog… as opposed to some other kind of weblog, such as an offline weblog, which, according to the…
As Peter Rojas points out in Engadget, it was not actually a mainstream news source which first reported Rumsfeld as saying: “To protect the Iraqi prisoners from any future abuses; any digital cameras, camcorders, or cell phones with cameras are strictly prohibited anywhere in any military compound in Iraq.” That statement was actually a satirical…
In a society devoted to “reality shows” and rampant commodification, it had to happen some time. Late last month an independent scientist auctioned off his services as a co-author on eBay, with the promise of helping the highest bidder write a scientific paper for publication. The offer even had the added allure of a linkage…
The perception and use of an avatar – as the primary means of agency in online environments – might be expected to be shaped by the motivations for participating in the environment. In particular, goal-oriented users may be more likely to treat avatars as tools/pawns to achieve goals, thereby encouraging a preference for 3PP that…
3.5 million for heaven. 3.9 million for hell. 9.4 million for Florida. —Bruce Stockler —On the Web, in the Heart (New York Times) An extremely interesting example of using rhetoric to organize data.
A Requiem for the Bookmark: Refresh That, Favor This From time to time, when teaching students about the Internet, I catch myself telling students to “hit reload” or suggesting that they “bookmark that.” These are Netscape-era terms, and while Internet Explorer is dominant now, I can’t seem to unlearn those terms. It’s a simple matter…
You can choose to fight evil alone, or you can join a gang of good guys. As humiliating as it might be, you could become a sidekick apprentice to characters with more developed skills. So far, the player community is welcoming; there aren’t many foul-mouthed teens and crabby veterans. Newbie-friendly areas exist, and subscribers so…
Flames shot up around a 21-year-old college student whose cell phone rang while he was pumping gas. —Phone Ignites Gas Station Fire (http://www.cbsnews.com) I’m glad the guy wasn’t hurt. If we could rig up something similar in classrooms and theatres, I bet people would remember to shut off their ringers. The graphic shows what looks like…