http://games.slashdot.org/ News for nerds, stuff that matters en-us Copyright 1997-2008, SourceForge, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 2009-07-13T18:20:23+00:00 SourceForge, Inc. help@slashdot.org Technology hourly 1 1970-01-01T00:00+00:00 http://s.fsdn.com/sd/topics/topicslashdot.gif http://games.slashdot.org/ http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/Sl4YUTVTvJw/Is-emCataclysmem-the-Next-emWorld-of-Warcraftem-Expansion ajs writes "There has been no official announcement yet, but a number of moves by Blizzard Entertainment seem to indicate that the next expansion for World of Warcraft could be titled Cataclysm. Speculation began when Blizzard trademarked Cataclysm recently, and then later when a test server briefly popped up with the word 'Maelstrom' in its name. If true, the name would fall neatly into the WoW lore and expected expansion list. The Cataclysm is another name for the Great Sundering, an event that created a swirling vortex of water and mystical energies (the 'Maelstrom') that has appeared on the world map in-game since release. There are also indications that early design work included some of the islands in this area, which has long fueled anticipation of a Maelstrom-based expansion involving the former Night Elf noble, Azshara, queen of the Naga and the Goblins whose main city is in the south seas."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1631246/Is-emCataclysmem-the-Next-emWorld-of-Warcraftem-Expansion?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/12/1631246"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1631246/Is-emCataclysmem-the-Next-emWorld-of-Warcraftem-Expansion?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NTKcPPlDHtMuJbWGNb67QUenioI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NTKcPPlDHtMuJbWGNb67QUenioI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NTKcPPlDHtMuJbWGNb67QUenioI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/NTKcPPlDHtMuJbWGNb67QUenioI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/Sl4YUTVTvJw" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-12T17:52:00+00:00 pcgames either-that-or-it's-not games 218 218,208,173,123,27,15,10 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1631246/Is-emCataclysmem-the-Next-emWorld-of-Warcraftem-Expansion?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/h3aFyPJW5fQ/New-Elliptic-Curve-Cryptography-Record deian writes "Cryptography researchers Joppe W. Bos, Marcelo E. Kaihara, Thorsten Kleinjung, Arjen K. Lenstra and Peter L. Montgomery have just announced that they have set a new record for the elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem (ECDLP) by solving it over a 112-bit finite field. The previous record was for a 109-bit prime field and dates back from October 2002. Their calculation was done on the EPFL cluster of more than 200 PS3s (same one used to create the Rogue CA certificates and demonstrate a reproducible attack on MD5 algorithms). On the PS3, the effort is equivalent to about 14 full 56-bit DES key searches!"<p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1620240/New-Elliptic-Curve-Cryptography-Record?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/12/1620240"></a></p><p><a href="http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1620240/New-Elliptic-Curve-Cryptography-Record?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lnuk8aPVno-Uq61uIXEVI3CJcIg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lnuk8aPVno-Uq61uIXEVI3CJcIg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lnuk8aPVno-Uq61uIXEVI3CJcIg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/lnuk8aPVno-Uq61uIXEVI3CJcIg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/h3aFyPJW5fQ" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-12T17:05:00+00:00 encryption feistel-would-be-impressed it 43 43,42,34,25,11,8,8 http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/1620240/New-Elliptic-Curve-Cryptography-Record?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/iWf_7-6uSPk/Facebook-and-the-Merging-of-Games-and-Social-Networks Gamasutra has an in-depth interview with Gareth Davis, Facebook's platform manager, about how social networks and online gaming are intersecting more and more as each industry matures. He says, "There's a cultural shift towards people being willing, excited, and preferring to use their real world identities online. We all know that 10 years ago, you were as anonymous as possible online, right? And today, we spend a lot of our time putting our real world identities out there and sharing them ... And we've seen this occur on Facebook.com, where as more and more people join Facebook and your social graph is more complete, you have the ability to have these social experiences with people you've never had before, and you're playing games with people whom you didn't play games with before, with your family members, with your parents, with friends in remote locations. There's this new gaming activity happening that we believe will translate to the consoles as well."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0522207/Facebook-and-the-Merging-of-Games-and-Social-Networks?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/12/0522207"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0522207/Facebook-and-the-Merging-of-Games-and-Social-Networks?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eqcgFRQiiLaAyUnI5mk_GgarPYQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eqcgFRQiiLaAyUnI5mk_GgarPYQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eqcgFRQiiLaAyUnI5mk_GgarPYQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/eqcgFRQiiLaAyUnI5mk_GgarPYQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/iWf_7-6uSPk" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-12T10:29:00+00:00 social world-of-pokecraft games 38 38,34,32,26,10,6,2 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0522207/Facebook-and-the-Merging-of-Games-and-Social-Networks?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/fckeeHWCTrE/MAME-Ported-To-the-Dingoo-A320 Busshy writes "Slaanesh has released a port of MAME for the Dingoo A320 (the console that comes with GBA, SNES, CPS1 and Megadrive emulators built-in), with support for thousands of old arcade games. You will have to install Dingoo Linux to be able to use MAME on the Dingoo. Some tutorial videos are available."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0529251/MAME-Ported-To-the-Dingoo-A320?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/12/0529251"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0529251/MAME-Ported-To-the-Dingoo-A320?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/sjnfUQkCClD2eeifmhqRoVVrHXw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/sjnfUQkCClD2eeifmhqRoVVrHXw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/sjnfUQkCClD2eeifmhqRoVVrHXw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/sjnfUQkCClD2eeifmhqRoVVrHXw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/fckeeHWCTrE" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-12T07:13:00+00:00 emulation seven-people-are-thrilled games 42 42,41,33,27,7,3,0 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/12/0529251/MAME-Ported-To-the-Dingoo-A320?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/zWrEXUKz1kM/How-To-Teach-Programming-To-Kids-Via-XBox An anonymous reader writes "Chris Wilson reviews Kodu, the new XBox game that he calls 'Logo on Steroids.' The game allows you to build a world and program every object in it with an in-house graphical language, making the game a primitive example of 'reactive state machines' in a 'multi-agent concurrent system.' It sounds like what we call 'application specific integrated circuits' in engineering, where every line of code runs in parallel."<p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/2124218/How-To-Teach-Programming-To-Kids-Via-XBox?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/11/2124218"></a></p><p><a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/2124218/How-To-Teach-Programming-To-Kids-Via-XBox?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2vs8mQ-obhpsCVIaZ8PzE_WLXFk/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2vs8mQ-obhpsCVIaZ8PzE_WLXFk/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2vs8mQ-obhpsCVIaZ8PzE_WLXFk/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/2vs8mQ-obhpsCVIaZ8PzE_WLXFk/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/zWrEXUKz1kM" height="1" width="1"/> timothy 2009-07-11T21:37:00+00:00 education if-it's-fun-it's-educational news 121 121,117,91,66,15,8,6 http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/2124218/How-To-Teach-Programming-To-Kids-Via-XBox?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/2GqETgCTO5w/Why-Video-Games-Are-Having-a-Harder-Time-With-Humor Kotaku is running an opinion piece discussing why video games are having a harder time being funny as they've shifted away from text-driven adventures and toward graphics-intensive environments. "As technology improved, things began to get more serious. With the rise of 3D technology a strong focus was put on making games look good, delivering a more realistic &mdash; and often darker &mdash; experience to the player. Cartoonish comedic games became more of a novelty than the norm. Few titles, such as Rare's Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64, fully embraced humor." The article also talks about how the trend could soon reverse itself. LucasArts' Dave Grossman said, "As the games get smarter and start paying attention to more things about what the player is actually doing, using that ability not just to create challenges but to create humorous moments will be pretty cool. Eventually I expect to be out of a job over that."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/038252/Why-Video-Games-Are-Having-a-Harder-Time-With-Humor?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/11/038252"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/038252/Why-Video-Games-Are-Having-a-Harder-Time-With-Humor?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DDFq2m0-2DbpuXJ5GabYdL97OOA/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DDFq2m0-2DbpuXJ5GabYdL97OOA/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DDFq2m0-2DbpuXJ5GabYdL97OOA/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/DDFq2m0-2DbpuXJ5GabYdL97OOA/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/2GqETgCTO5w" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-11T06:09:00+00:00 games moo-moomoo-moo-moomoomoo-mooooooo games 200 200,199,154,119,43,21,11 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/038252/Why-Video-Games-Are-Having-a-Harder-Time-With-Humor?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/pzy1yCDJYt0/Bethesda-Releases-emDaggerfallem-For-Free On Thursday, Bethesda announced that for the 15th anniversary of the Elder Scrolls series, they were releasing The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall for free. They aren't providing support for the game anymore, but they posted a detailed description of how to get the game running in DOSBox. Fans of the series can now easily relive the experience of getting completely lost in those enormous dungeons. Save often.<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/023245/Bethesda-Releases-emDaggerfallem-For-Free?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/11/023245"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/023245/Bethesda-Releases-emDaggerfallem-For-Free?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zxt43aezJ5pHf3qSZdU58M9jiXY/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zxt43aezJ5pHf3qSZdU58M9jiXY/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zxt43aezJ5pHf3qSZdU58M9jiXY/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/zxt43aezJ5pHf3qSZdU58M9jiXY/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/pzy1yCDJYt0" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-11T02:57:00+00:00 classicgames vennnnn-geannnnnnnnce games 77 77,72,67,51,21,11,5 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/023245/Bethesda-Releases-emDaggerfallem-For-Free?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/t7yQ3jxmVbg/emCommand-amp-Conquer-4em-Announced-For-2010 EA has officially announced that Command &amp; Conquer 4 will be coming to the PC sometime next year. They say it will bring the Tiberium series to an "epic conclusion," while introducing "new class-based gameplay, mobile bases and persistent player progression throughout all game modes." In an interview with Gamespot, designer Samuel Bass elaborated: "Our 'offense class' is your classic RTS faction, tank-oriented and focused on frontline combat. With the 'defense class,' however, the emphasis is on infantry, bunkers, and turrets, which lets you build complex defensive grids and really hold down a section of the battlefield. Lastly, we come to the 'support class,' which is based around utilizing a selection of aircraft and custom vehicles to traverse the environment. Once engaged in combat, support players can fight directly or assist their teammates with a variety of powers and [healing abilities]."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/0110207/emCommand-amp-Conquer-4em-Announced-For-2010?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/11/0110207"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/0110207/emCommand-amp-Conquer-4em-Announced-For-2010?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TZJAzW1gmYOE1Nfn5FXNPsJnV84/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TZJAzW1gmYOE1Nfn5FXNPsJnV84/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TZJAzW1gmYOE1Nfn5FXNPsJnV84/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/TZJAzW1gmYOE1Nfn5FXNPsJnV84/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/t7yQ3jxmVbg" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-11T01:19:00+00:00 pcgames i-hope-they-bring-back-invincible-sand-bags games 70 70,66,50,32,13,5,2 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/11/0110207/emCommand-amp-Conquer-4em-Announced-For-2010?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/qyG3BgxbAyE/Chinese-Web-Addicts-Get-Boot-Camp-Therapy itwbennett writes "A large number of Chinese parents are finding their teenagers to be exhibiting such psychological symptoms as depression, antisocial behavior, and slipping grades. The cause: Internet addiction. World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike rank beside Chinese role-playing games as those that hook the most patients, says Tao Ran, the founder of a youth rehabilitation center on a Beijing army base. Online chat programs more often hook girls, who make up a handful of Tao's current 70 patients. The teens are subjected to a 'strict regimen of military drills, martial arts training, lectures and sessions with psychiatrists.' And, most importantly: no Internet."<p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/2312202/Chinese-Web-Addicts-Get-Boot-Camp-Therapy?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/09/2312202"></a></p><p><a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/2312202/Chinese-Web-Addicts-Get-Boot-Camp-Therapy?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/37yiIrhcZ7YmjsHGoVthriQv9Lw/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/37yiIrhcZ7YmjsHGoVthriQv9Lw/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/37yiIrhcZ7YmjsHGoVthriQv9Lw/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/37yiIrhcZ7YmjsHGoVthriQv9Lw/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/qyG3BgxbAyE" height="1" width="1"/> timothy 2009-07-09T23:23:00+00:00 internet wait-until-this-hits-your-block-committee yro 279 279,273,217,162,46,30,21 http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/2312202/Chinese-Web-Addicts-Get-Boot-Camp-Therapy?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/sQ6hndQ79Ag/New-emMechWarriorem-Announced-emMechWarrior4em-To-Be-Distributed-Free Vamman writes "In light of the recent announcement of the new MechWarrior game, Smith and Tinker has granted our online dev team MekTek.net (which has been supporting MechWarrior for almost a decade now) permission to release MechWarrior 4 entirely for free using the same type of distribution model that id Games used for Quake3's free release.<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1753230/New-emMechWarriorem-Announced-emMechWarrior4em-To-Be-Distributed-Free?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/09/1753230"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1753230/New-emMechWarriorem-Announced-emMechWarrior4em-To-Be-Distributed-Free?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0ax27LSiav0PbsSv-7YZoOde8No/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0ax27LSiav0PbsSv-7YZoOde8No/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0ax27LSiav0PbsSv-7YZoOde8No/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/0ax27LSiav0PbsSv-7YZoOde8No/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/sQ6hndQ79Ag" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-09T18:16:00+00:00 classicgames as-in-beer games 226 226,223,193,151,31,17,9 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1753230/New-emMechWarriorem-Announced-emMechWarrior4em-To-Be-Distributed-Free?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/082mJw_ZexE/Bethesda-Speaks-On-Gamebryo-Engine-Final-emFallout-3em-DLC PsxMeUP writes "Game Observer conducted an interview with Ashley Cheng, Production Director at Bethesda. He answered questions about the Gamebryo engine, why they prefer it over other engines and the advantages it presented while making Fallout 3. Cheng also talks a bit about what inspired their designers while making Fallout 3 and what is in store for the PS3. Apparently, much of the team has read Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which inspired the look and story of Fallout 3. Bethesda, according to Cheng, will never create a game like Final Fantasy because the Gamebryo engine is better at handling 'open ended worlds ripe for exploration.'" Meanwhile, Bethesda's Jeff Gardiner spoke recently about the game's fifth and final DLC release, Mothership Zeta, which finds players aboard an alien spaceship in orbit. He said, "The player will have a handful of tasty alien technologies to play with. There are new fire arms and melee weapons, which will comprise the most powerful weaponry in the game."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1655222/Bethesda-Speaks-On-Gamebryo-Engine-Final-emFallout-3em-DLC?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/09/1655222"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1655222/Bethesda-Speaks-On-Gamebryo-Engine-Final-emFallout-3em-DLC?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1rJSfxUONRRZ1qCbG5bG_m7jCVI/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1rJSfxUONRRZ1qCbG5bG_m7jCVI/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1rJSfxUONRRZ1qCbG5bG_m7jCVI/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/1rJSfxUONRRZ1qCbG5bG_m7jCVI/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/082mJw_ZexE" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-09T17:24:00+00:00 games more-and-better games 93 93,90,75,57,13,7,4 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/1655222/Bethesda-Speaks-On-Gamebryo-Engine-Final-emFallout-3em-DLC?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/a1t2wc7CXJU/Video-Games-the-First-Amendment-and-Obscenity An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from an article about how obscenity laws and the first amendment relate to modern games: "This question is a tough one, for the very good reason that no video game developer or publisher has ever been prosecuted for obscenity related to video games. As we have seen, if the medium of video games are held to the same standard as literature and film then, presumably, they can also be held to be obscene. One of the reasons for the lack of obscenity prosecution against video game developers and publishers is that the courts have limited obscenity to sexual content only. In fact, the courts have gone so far as to specifically reject calls to alter the definition of 'obscenity' to include violent content in video games. The other major reason is the vast majority of video games sold in the United States have only small amounts of sexual content thanks to the Electronic Software Rating Board."<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/164259/Video-Games-the-First-Amendment-and-Obscenity?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/09/164259"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/164259/Video-Games-the-First-Amendment-and-Obscenity?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uF4wpWctPjht_jICXuTbqXlalKE/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uF4wpWctPjht_jICXuTbqXlalKE/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uF4wpWctPjht_jICXuTbqXlalKE/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/uF4wpWctPjht_jICXuTbqXlalKE/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/a1t2wc7CXJU" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-09T16:23:00+00:00 censorship making-people-explode-is-fine-but-no-gettin'-loved-up games 228 228,224,184,142,50,28,23 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/164259/Video-Games-the-First-Amendment-and-Obscenity?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/UNfO-gzevi8/Whats-the-Importance-of-Graphics-In-Video-Games An anonymous reader writes "I develop games as a hobby. I've experimented with games on almost every platform available. For me, the gameplay is the most influential factor of a game, with history and graphics dividing second place. But, for some reason, it's not the technical beauty of the graphics that appeal to me. I have played Crysis, and I've played Pok&#233;mon games. The graphics of the Pok&#233;mon games entertain me as much as the graphics of Crysis. I think both are beautiful. So, why is the current generation of games giving so much importance to the realism in graphic games? I think it is sufficient for a game to have objects that are recognizable. For example, while the water in some games may not look as good as in Crysis, I can still tell it's water. What are your opinions on the current direction of game graphics? Do you prefer easy-to-render 3D scenes that leave space for beautiful effects, like with Radiosity, or more complex 3D scenes that try to be realistic?"<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/058250/Whats-the-Importance-of-Graphics-In-Video-Games?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/09/058250"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/058250/Whats-the-Importance-of-Graphics-In-Video-Games?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/_MqhGoNep7iFSePon7f6Ze_F_hQ/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/_MqhGoNep7iFSePon7f6Ze_F_hQ/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/_MqhGoNep7iFSePon7f6Ze_F_hQ/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/_MqhGoNep7iFSePon7f6Ze_F_hQ/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/UNfO-gzevi8" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-09T08:43:00+00:00 graphics not-all-pixels-are-created-equal games 504 504,504,414,272,53,34,23 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/09/058250/Whats-the-Importance-of-Graphics-In-Video-Games?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/ghp-Au-AZAM/New-RTS-Based-on-DotA-Offers-Native-Linux-Client S2 Games, longtime fans of the "Defense of the Ancients" (DotA) mod for Warcraft 3, have decided to create an entire game based around it (which IceFrog had no objection to). Without offending their still-active NDA, I can say that Heroes of Newerth is shaping up to be a very polished RTS, with the ability to play both via S2's own online service and local games, something that even Blizzard seems to be missing these days. Unlike most publishers, S2 has also decided to simultaneously release Windows, Mac, and Linux clients, making this one of the best looking games that I have ever seen on my Linux box. Additionally, S2 would like to invite another 400 players to the HoN beta, so if you are an RTS fan (and especially if you are a DotA fan) just send an email to scuttlemonkey at slashdot dot org with the subject line of "HoN Beta Key Request" and I'll reply to the first 400 requests as best I can. Update 20:37 GMT by SM: In case you don't notice in your haste to create a beta account, let me remind you that this game is still under strict NDA, so please no specifics in the discussion below. Update 00:01 GMT by SM: Well, given the 800+ emails that flooded my inbox in the first half hour or so we're all out of beta keys, but keep an eye out for a release date. Update 01:00 GMT by SM: Apparently your friends over at S2 games were quite impressed with the level of interest and are furnishing another 2,000 beta keys for me to continue working through the requests in my inbox (I'm at around 1,500 requests total as of this update, and only about 350 keys sent out). Please be patient as I slowly try to catch up. Also a point of clarification, while IceFrog doesn't mind S2 diving in to this space with a game based on DotA (competition is good in the long run after all), he wanted to make sure loyal fans of DotA knew that he plans to continue developing and improving DotA for WC3. Update 7/10/2009 13:06 GMT by SM: to all those still waiting on a beta invite, please be patient. I use gmail as the central repository for my email for ease-of-use, and while I was only expecting to have to hand out 400 keys, apparently gmail has an email cap of 500 per day. Last night my account got locked for excessive use, so I am waiting on the wrist-slap to expire so I can continue my key-spam. It looks like all who have requested a key so far will get one.<p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1543203/New-RTS-Based-on-DotA-Offers-Native-Linux-Client?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/08/1543203"></a></p><p><a href="http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1543203/New-RTS-Based-on-DotA-Offers-Native-Linux-Client?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ky9BCuc3AJBQl7czpkdKCZfmL9I/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ky9BCuc3AJBQl7czpkdKCZfmL9I/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ky9BCuc3AJBQl7czpkdKCZfmL9I/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/Ky9BCuc3AJBQl7czpkdKCZfmL9I/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/ghp-Au-AZAM" height="1" width="1"/> ScuttleMonkey 2009-07-08T20:49:00+00:00 rts it-DOES-run-on-linux games 173 173,165,128,94,20,15,10 http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1543203/New-RTS-Based-on-DotA-Offers-Native-Linux-Client?from=rss http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~3/rVv6NR4UbV8/NASA-Uses-AI-Customer-Service-Robot-In-emSecond-Lifeem Linguo writes "Fusing human psychology with an advanced artificial intelligence engine, MyCyberTwin's virtual humans are being used by organizations like NASA and National Australia Bank to improve their customer support levels. MyCyberTwin technology is designed to allow almost anyone to build a virtual, artificial human &mdash; called a CyberTwin &mdash; which can handle such tasks as personalized customer support, client sales or even entertainment and companionship. CyberTwins can take the form of a clone of yourself, or a representative of your company, and they can live in almost any digital environment, including Web sites, virtual worlds, blogs, social network pages and mobile phones."<p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1537220/NASA-Uses-AI-Customer-Service-Robot-In-emSecond-Lifeem?from=rss"><img src="http://games.slashdot.org/slashdot-it.pl?from=rss&amp;op=image&amp;style=h0&amp;sid=09/07/08/1537220"></a></p><p><a href="http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1537220/NASA-Uses-AI-Customer-Service-Robot-In-emSecond-Lifeem?from=rss">Read more of this story</a> at Slashdot.</p> <p><a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V4hN0vJirReYemdxYU5Rt1yxCrg/0/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V4hN0vJirReYemdxYU5Rt1yxCrg/0/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a><br/> <a href="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V4hN0vJirReYemdxYU5Rt1yxCrg/1/da"><img src="http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~at/V4hN0vJirReYemdxYU5Rt1yxCrg/1/di" border="0" ismap="true"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Slashdot/slashdotGames/~4/rVv6NR4UbV8" height="1" width="1"/> Soulskill 2009-07-08T16:13:00+00:00 robot get-a-first-artificial-life hardware 45 45,45,25,16,4,2,1 http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/09/07/08/1537220/NASA-Uses-AI-Customer-Service-Robot-In-emSecond-Lifeem?from=rss Search Slashdot stories query http://games.slashdot.org/search.pl