Gary Gygax, the father of roleplaying games, has passed away . . . see Gary Gygax and Father of D&D for more. Gygax inspired multiple generations of gamers, myself included, and will be missed . . . his impact upon game culture had been huge, massive, and pervasive. Gaming will certainly move on without him but it would most definately not be what it is today or will be without his initial influence.
Thank you, Gary.
All the best,
Brian
I am pretty sure I want one of these . . . Riding Brain Waves At a Game Expo.
After the charity hypnosis show in Nantou we performed last weekend and the great music at PostSecret Takes Taiwan, we spent the evening and much of Sunday with friends in Taichung. My friend Brian had just bought an X-Box 360 along with a copy of the bundle for Guitar Hero II.
Well, my daughter Kaye really liked the game . . . as a gifted musician she basically kicked everyone's butt twice and a half.
I did some searching a looking at versions online as we will likely buy her the game bundle when we get back from our US tour in February . . . and found lots of stuff on Rock Band by the folks at Harmonix which looks even more appropriate for her and her music social gaming needs . . . wow, that looks like tons of fun too.
I haven't played drums in years . . . I mean real drums and not the sort of drum games we've seen so far in video games so the Rock Band set looks very interesting to me.
Anyone know when/if this game will be hitting Asia? Really, I mean "when is it coming to Taiwan?" I do NOT want to get the US region version as we want to be able to play it on our un-modded Taiwan machine and go online so we can download the new packs and the like . . . but we don't want to have to wait a million years to get it.
Of course, what I would really LOVE to see is a game with a keyboard peripheral so Kaye can really kick some serious butt (see http://www.kayephillips.com for her original piano compositions - yes, she is age thirteen). Personally, I'd like to see a music game that uses a horizontal scheme for note displays so that they are on a bar and are in proper music notation as they scroll past . . . a nice way for players to also learn proper music score reading instead of the now typical vertical system in place (you can still use the color keys in a horizontal display system).
The folks organizing Spring Scream really need to set up a Rock Band rock off in addition to the air guitar contest they had last year too. Speaking of Spring Scream, anyone know when they will be setting up for band/performer applications?
If anyone has a clue as to when Rock Band will hit Taiwan, drop a line.
All the best,
Brian
Lorraine and I were just talking about a news story of a little kid being killed by a komodo dragon on a reserve because he took a crap near a tree and that pissed the territorial dragon off. Here we have what looks to be a fun game for no one actually in the room. Ah well, some of the Japanese extreme games look like a lot of fun . . . this one's just plain weird . . . but . . . fascinating. Why, why, oh, why?
Exactly the way I remember college . . . well, maybe not quite exactly. Link snarfed from Aaron.
Check out one of the "trailers" for the upcoming performance of Wildest Dreams, the senior graduation play for my students in the English Department at National Chengchi University to be performed Dec. 14 and Dec. 15 at the university (be there!) . . . the play is about a group of friends who play role playing games (RPGs) to the point of the games becoming their escape from reality . . .
The students have gone all out and created a film that will be used in conjunction with the on-stage drama . . . the characters on stage will "play" the table top game with their fantasy personae manifested within the film. I am the faculty advisor of the play for which I am quite qualified (my doctoral dissertation is in interactive drama (live RPGs), I have advanced degrees in theatre, I deal with reality levels in my hypnosis work, and I played more RPGs than a human really should play).
See the official blog for the play here and the fullsize versions of the trailers here (download links for the mov files are below the embedded player). Venue information is on the blog.
Koolness.
All the best,
Brian
Do these guys know or even care what these hot game girls are tattooing on their arms?
I have lived this life and know folks who live it still. This piece is called Fear of Girls. There is an interview with the film's creator here.
This year, the seniors in the English Department are taking a look at Alan Ayckbourn's play Wildest Dreams as a possible candidate for their senior graduation production. The play deals with just such material. The seniors have asked me to serve as faculty advisor for their production.
Here is a short clip from the downloadable version of the film which has extras.
You can purchase the extended version through the folks at YngTurk Films if you would like the full version.
Funocity.
All the best,
Brian
Brian David Phillips, PhD, CH [phillips@nccu.edu.tw]
Certified Hypnotherapist
President, Society of Experiential Trance
Associate Professor, NCCU, Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.BrianDavidPhillips.com
Yep . . . gender-bending popular in video games . . .
By day, Freeman Williams manages a small dental practice in suburban Houston. But on any given night, he's prowling crime-ridden streets and battling ne'er-do-wells in the video game "City of Heroes" as his virtual alter-ego: a female superhero named Robotrixie. "I get in character voice-wise as much as my male voice will allow," explains Williams, 48, who talks with other players through the game's voice chat feature. "This has become my catharsis, my escape from the work world." While the idea of gender-bending is hardly new, the vast online worlds in video games such as "City of Heroes" and "World of Warcraft" have become the latest ways for people to forget about their real life and transform into someone — or even something — else.
Well . . . when we get a new PS2 or X-Box game, there is a tendancy to choose the female characters around here . . . althogh, for Kaye, it makes sense she needs female characters to identify with and so many games don't have good female characters, most are pretty much all-male or only have one or two girls to choose out of a selection that has many males. However, deal ol' dad will sometimes choose the girl characters 'cuz they're hotter looking. No online roleplay though. When I've played online, I've always gone male . . . male priest types who usually worship Eris. Duh. I'd say that the online RPGs have this phenomenon but it's not as annoying as say the online chat rooms or messengers systems with tons of "hot babes" randomly approaching folks to talk sex . . . then, you know it's a guy. Way back when I ran the experiemental hypnosis group for women, a good fifteen percent or so of the members turned out to be guys pretending to be girls looking for folks to hypnotize them into becoming women . . . a fetish, not transgended.
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