Jmical"a post-apocalyptic Just Cause. With Australians." ANNNND sold.
Avalanche Studios, the developers of the Just Cause series, are making a Mad Max game. We don't know much about it, since only a short clip and logo was shown, but if you remember a few months back some blurry teaser images were shown which suggest the game is basically a post-apocalyptic Just Cause. With Australians.
    
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Telltale Games has already revealed that there's more zombie apocalypse drama on the way. Now we've got a first look. Here's some relevant info from the press release:
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Over the weekend, author Iain M. Banks died of cancer — just two months after announcing that he had less than a year to live. He left behind some of the greatest works of science fiction ever written. Here are eleven Banksian rules of good SF writing, that we would do well to remember long into the future.
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In an interview from Hong Kong with journalist Glenn Greenwald, 29-year-old NSA technologist Ed Snowden reveals that he leaked documents revealing that the NSA was wiretapping millions of innocent US citizens. If you want to understand the future of government, you must watch this video.
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JmicalReally Good Post
I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now, but social media is tailor-made to feed that big ol’ monster in all of us called “ego.”
Think about it. Look where I am. Listen to what I’m doing. Look at this cool hotel where I’m staying. Here’s a picture of my food. I’m hanging out with these people (even though we’re all looking down at our phones right now). Look at this great picture of me. I’m shopping at a store now. Check out this thing I wrote. I’m thinking about buying this. I bought this. I’m sharing information with you that I found out about first. I just got upgraded. I’m at the gym. I’m at a concert. Buy my book. Come see me speak. Let me impart wisdom on you. Check out what I’m listening to. I’m planning a trip. I’m on a trip. I just came back from a trip. I just met with very important clients at a really big company. Look at what a great husband/mom/wife/dad/brother/sister/uncle/aunt/or other relative I am.
It’s endless.
The social app/platform developers caught on early – whether they realized it or not – to this need for humans to feel good about themselves and have others like them. Foursquare. Instagram. Twitter. Path. Spotify. Vine. And hundreds of other apps that allow you to share every single pixel of your life every single moment of the day to anybody who will look or listen. And so we do. We share.
In presentations, I often say that “everybody wants to be a part of something bigger than themselves. It’s hard-wired into our DNA.” Which I still stand by. But also hard-wired into our DNA is the need to feel loved and accepted (actually, the two are intertwined). Just ask Maslow. So it only makes since that when we’re out there trying to engage customers on social media, we should play to their ego.
Some smart folks wrote a paper in 2011 entitled “On Brands and Word of Mouth,” which Geno Church and John Moore do a brilliant job of breaking down in this presentation. The basic premise is that the top three reasons people share content online is (in this order): ego, information and emotion. Or, EGO, INFO and EMO as I like to think of it. So when I’m working to build a program or even create one piece of content, I think about it in these three buckets. Will my efforts fill one (or more) of those buckets? It should if I want it to spread.
But for the purpose of this post, we’re taking a look at ego and how it relates to content. So, to put it simply, we should create pieces of content that feed customer’s egos. Because it will be shared. It’s why the “Fan of the week” posts on brand’s Facebook pages are so popular. It’s why when a brand or outlet picks up your blog post on Twitter or Facebook, you retweet/post it to your wall. It’s why when a brand engages with a customer, they tell all their friends and followers (online and off) about it and the “special” attention they received.
Yes, most brands to a really great job on social media talking about themselves. And to an extent – as it goes with advertising – it’s needed to inform customers and potential customers. But – and that’s a BIG but – we need to turn that spotlight on our customers on a regular basis. So instead of “Hey, look at me!” It’s “Hey, look at this customer of ours and how cool they are!” Which, of course, will give them something to yell, “Hey, look at me!” And the word of mouth roars on.
So the next time you’re in a meeting to develop content for your social channels, make sure you fill the ego bucket first. Then watch what happens.
The internet is aflame with the news that the National Security Agency may be spying on phone calls and internet access of American citizens, and the possibility that they've partnered with some of the biggest tech companies in the world—Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Skype, and others—to request and access data directly whenever they want it. Let's take a look at what exactly is going on, how long it's been happening, and what—if anything—you can do about it.
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JmicalWow, I worked with Jean on some fiction anthologies a few years ago. Seems like an extremely complicated mess.
Jean Rabe, editor of the SFWA Bulletin, has stepped down in the wake of tons of criticism of the organization's official magazine, which featured regular contributors talking about "lady editors" and commenting on thier appearance. (Plus the cheesetastic cover you see at left.)
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On July 21, 1974, five years after making history as the first men to set foot on the moon, Apollo 11 astronauts Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong, and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin presented the Washington National Cathedral with a small memento from their voyage.
In the four years preceding the moon rock's arrival at the cathedral, NASA administrator Dr. Thomas Pain worked closely with St. Louis artist Rodney Winfield to design and construct the window that would house stone. Known to most as the Space Window, the stained glass creation depicts stars and orbiting planets in hues of blue, green, white, orange, and red, inspired by photos taken from the Apollo 11 mission. Particular care was taken to install the rock, which was placed at the center of a planet (or perhaps a moon?) in the upper half of the window. The sample is encased in a small, air-tight, nitrogen-filled capsule to prevent deterioration. Sealing was conducted in a nitrogen environment to prevent air from entering the capsule during the process.
The rock itself weighs a mere 7.18 grams and is estimated to be around 3.6 billion years old. It was collected from the moon's Sea of Tranquility and is composed primarily of basalt, believed to be the result of lava flow. Pyroxferroite, a mineral unknown on Earth, was also found in the sample.
The rock was presented to the National Cathedral by the Apollo 11 crew along with the window's benefactor, Dr. Pain, and Dr. James Fletcher, the presiding NASA administrator at the time. The ceremony commemorated the fifth anniversary of the first lunar landing. President Nixon approved the gift earlier that year.
Though many view science and religion as being at odds with one another, the Space Window at the National Cathedral embodies the intersection of religious thought with the spirit of exploration and the mysteries of the universe. In a September 2012 memorial service held at the National Cathedral to honor the life and legacy of Neil Armstrong, who died in August of that year at the age of 82, Armstrong's crewmate Michael Collins led the assembly in prayer. Said Collins,
"Creator of the universe, your dominion extends through the immensity of space. Guide and guard those who seek to fathom its mysteries. Especially we thank you this day for your servant Neil Armstrong, who with courage and humility first set foot upon the moon. Following his example, save us from arrogance, lest we forget that our achievements are grounded in you."
The Space Window is located on the south side of the cathedral. Nearby atop the cathedral's West Tower, a Darth Vader grotesque introduces an unexpected sci-fi element to the space motif.
In 2006, I was fired from my job. I remember the joyful drive home — finally, I was free from this job I had hated for four years, free to find a job I loved, one that would challenge me and inspire me. This was the best thing that could have ever happened to me!
Which was fine, until I bombed my first job interview. And the second one. And the third. I started collecting unemployment, but we were still struggling. And then, this endless cycle that seemed to go on forever: Send dozens of resumes. Wait by the phone. Get a phone call. Shave. Put on a suit. Shake hands. Talk about my weaknesses. My successes. Make up stuff. Smile! Don’t forget to smile! Pretend your life doesn’t depend on their decision. Shake hands again. Wait by the phone. Send dozens of resumes…
You think you know it all in your mid-30s. You think you’ve reached a point where nothing much can surprise you anymore. You think you know yourself, and you think you know the world around you. But nothing prepares you for depression. Nothing prepares you for that first morning you wake up and wish you could disappear, or not exist. And worse than that, nothing prepares you for the following day, when you wake up to realize you didn’t just have a bad day yesterday, and that maybe this thing people talk about, this D-word, is not just something that happens to other people.
It lasted five months for me, more or less. Five months of feeling like I was a failure. Five months of feeling like I wasn’t a real man, whatever that means. Five months of depression.
I didn’t tell my wife, because real men don’t talk about this stuff, and I wanted desperately to cling on to this self-imposed solitary confinement of despair, because I thought that if I weren’t man enough to find a job, at least I could be man enough to keep my depression to myself. Hell, I didn’t even tell myself what I was going through. Waking up day after day for months, wishing I could just sleep for 24 hours, and I thought it made perfect sense, and that everything would be fine once my circumstances changed. I wasn’t depressed, I thought, just going through a rough patch.
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Five months of depression. I didn’t tell my wife, because real men don’t talk about this stuff,
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Things changed eventually before I found a job. I started meditating, which made me calm, and I read The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, which, if nothing else, showed me that people have been dealing with the same problems I had been dealing with for thousands of years. And in the end, for me, that was all I needed: to be calm, and to remember I wasn’t alone. Thousands of years ago, someone else had been there, pondering the same questions and overcoming the same self-doubts.
Marc Block joined the Dad Bloggers group a little after the Dad 2.0 conference in February. He told us he was excited about the new blog he was starting, Divided Dad, and he invited us to read his first post, “Being a Divided Dad.” In it, he writes:
And why am I a divided dad and not a divided person, or a divided man? The answer is simple. I am a dad. And when you are a dad, that is what you are. And being a dad is way different than being a father. Being a father is a physical thing. Being a dad is emotional, mental, spiritual and any other “al” you can think of… I am not starting this blog so I can tell other dads how to be a dad. I am here to share the joys, experiences, thoughts, insights and feelings about being a dad.
I read this post Marc wrote in February, and all I could see was excitement about his future as a dad and as a writer. I didn’t know Marc when I read his blog. I didn’t know Marc when I read his comments and posts in the group. I didn’t know Marc even though he was my friend on Facebook. I didn’t know he had been suffering from depression, and I didn’t know he was going to lose that fight.
Marc took his own life a week ago.
Depressed people often don’t talk about depression, and this may be especially true for men. With me, even though I didn’t talk to anyone, I still felt “cured” when I realized I wasn’t the first person experiencing depression. With me, history may have been all the company I needed. Others may need your company.
Depressed people don’t need your sympathy. What they do need is to know they’re not the only ones feeling overwhelmed by the weight of it all. Depression shouldn’t be a solitary confinement, but a path we travel on with our heads up, as a group.
—photo by polatsamuk/Flickr
—first appeared on The Huffington Post
What an amazing deal! Not only do you get a 12-inch replica Dubstep Gun with lights and sounds for $99, you also get a Johnny Gat memorial statue, a Dubstep Doomsday Button and a copy of Saints Row IV for good measure. Neat!
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JmicalHuh.
These 7 States Ban Anyone Who Is Atheist From Holding A Public Office.
I know what you're thinking. Finally! Making games can't be that hard and take that long, and you'd be right, I just spend too much time screwing around and surfing the web.
Scurvy Scallywags in The Voyage to Discover the Ultimate Sea Shanty: A Musical Match-3 Pirate RPG will be out for iOS on June 6th!
Mark your calendars and stock up on lemons and oranges!
INTENSE SPOILERS FOR LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF GAME OF THRONES. SERIOUSLY, QUIT READING RIGHT THIS INSTANT IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED IT.
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JmicalGodDAMN
A group of fans are putting a Red Dead Redemption movie together, and smartly, they're not doing the obvious. They're instead drinking from the same inspirational well as the series' developers (especially from the first Red Dead), combining a love for Spaghetti Westerns and a bit of the old ultra-violence into something that's as much a love letter to bad 70s cinema as it is Rockstar's epic.
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JmicalI'm over achievements. Soooo over them. I realized this after I was about to grind out the last one in Poker Night 2, and I was like, "fuck it, why should I care?" They've become an interesting roadmap to alternate ways to play a game (see Dead Rising OTR for example), but gone are the days of grinding to get 100% on cheevos.
It‘s almost midnight and I have spent the last hour killing myself over and over and over again.
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"Both kink and games involve and even require co-operation and trust: between the player and the author, between the players themselves, between someone experiencing pain and someone inflicting it." Game developers Porpentine and Merritt Kopas talk about the intersection of kink and video games over at Trash Babes. It's a must-read.
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JmicalThis. Is. Awesome.
All Known Bodies of the Solar System that are 200 Miles or Wider
This is vury kewl.
Source for HD.
We’re a big family, when you look at us all together, eh?
As in, holy crap, we knew solar was getting cheap, but wow. Among energy afficionados, the precipitous decline in the price of solar cells is called "The Swanson Effect." And no – not after that Swanson.
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About 15,000 years ago, an old female wooly mammoth plunged through the ice as she was being chased by predators. Her remains have now been uncovered by scientists working in Siberia. And remarkably, as they were digging it out, blood began to stream out. Which is weird given that it was 10° below freezing.
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JmicalI was just thinking that I needed an espionage game that used the DEFCON graphics. Boom, it happens.
Welcome to Wetware, an upcoming 80s-tinged cyberpunk strategy game from Reality Council that puts you in charge of a "megacorporate network" and tasks you with, well, taking over the internet.
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We all know that Middle-Earth is a sausage fest. But what would happen if you flipped all the genders? Could Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings still work as well if you replaced Sean Bean, John Noble and Sean Astin with women? This dream cast proves it would. It's... a diversion.
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Planet Travel Posters Sets Mars & Venus by Ron Guyatt
via sagansense:
Deviant Art || My Store || Facebook || Twitter
The Project:
Space tourism is still a long ways off, but it’s not hard to imagine that someday, tourists will visit the natural geological landmarks of other worlds much like they tour the Grand Canyon, Mount Everest or Ayers Rock. Each of these great tourist destinations needs a classic retro travel poster to entice visitors. Until the day people settle off world and make their own destinations many of these may be the places that people will want to travel too. I hope that these posters can inspire people to think beyond our world to the limitless possibilities of the Universe.
Posters Available at My Store
I want to go to there. And there. And there.
I propose we add the Geysers of Enceladus and the Great Crater of Mimas to the itinerary.
Archaeologists have uncovered nearly 5,000 cave paintings at 11 different sites in Mexico, the likely product of early hunter-gatherers. What’s even more remarkable is that the area was previously thought to be uninhabited.
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What you’re looking at is the first direct observation of an atom’s electron orbital — an atom's actual wave function! To capture the image, researchers utilized a new quantum microscope — an incredible new device that literally allows scientists to gaze into the quantum realm.
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For the first time ever, planetary scientists have created a topographical map of Titan, the largest of Saturn's many moons, and the second-largest in the entire solar system. The map is a boon to researchers who study Titan, a mysterious moon that is arguably the most Earth-like body in our solar system – and it's beautiful, too.
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For all the articles and interviews about The Witness, people have been wondering what the experience of playing the next game from the creator of Braid would look like. You can get a glimpse of The Witness in action in an interview on the official PlayStation Blog.
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JmicalBLOOD AND ICE CREAM #3 WHATUP
It actually took a moment of consideration to decide whether to post the new trailer for the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg/Nick Frost sci-fi comedy The World's End. It's not that I don't want to see the movie, on the contrary, I'm all up for the boys and a romp through a pub crawl that somehow is interrupted by an alien invasion, but this trailer isn't quite as good as the first. [Continued ...]
Following up on this week's A Blog of Games entry, we've got Woodland Creatures, a bestiary for the Chronicle System, the rules that power A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying. This 33-page PDF features animals, beasts, horrors, and legends your characters can encounter in wilderness areas in a homegrown setting utilizing the Chronicle System, or in a Westeros that diverges from the accepted canon. Please keep an eye out for new Chronicle System products!
Chronicle System: Woodland Creatures (PDF)
