This month's Boston Post Mortem will be featuring games created by Boston teams for the Global Game Jam where teams around the world competed to create video games over a weekend.
The event will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 11 starting at 7:00pm at the Skellig in Waltham.
Boston Postmortem, the monthly gathering of local game developers will meet on Wednesday, December 17th, from 7pm to 9pm, at Microsoft's Cambridge offices followed by dinner at the Cambridge Brewing Company.
Our meeting this month will be our "year in review" session. We'll be having three fifteen-minute talks.
Info on getting there follows:
Continue reading "Boston Post Mortem: Game Development Year in Review, Dec. 17" »
MIT prof Henry Jenkins on the myths of video games.
Age of Steam is a board game where you compete against others to build railroads. Now you can compete in Vermont and New Hampshire maps. Players complain that this is a hard area to compete in (because of all the trees blocking the way). And the price is a hefty $80 (!).
Ralph Baer, the inventor of the videogame console, will be speaking at the Boston Postmortem game developers meeting on August 5th. If you weren't an early gamer the matching game Simon above, also invented by Baer maybe more familiar. Looks like there'll be some free food and drink as well. (Image: Wikimedia)
"[O]ur speaker is Ralph Baer, inventor of the home video game console! His
"brown box" prototype, initially created in 1968, was refined and
released in 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the first ever console as we
know it. Some of Baer's other game-related inventions include the light
gun and Simon. He remains an active inventor to this day.
Mr. Baer is undoubtedly one of a handful of people who launched our
entire industry, but if that weren't enough to get you to come out, he
will be bringing one of his "brown box" prototypes with him! (You can
see another one at the Smithsonian.) He gave the highest-rated talk at
GDC 2008, and will be gracing us with a discussion of what it was like
to create an industry."
Details
7pm, Tuesday, August 5
The Skellig, Waltham, MA
Game developers will hear from two doctors on the influence of games on kids, a subject where games are usually the latest scapegoat.
"Boston Post Mortem is happy to welcome Drs. Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson, authors of Grand Theft Childhood, a book released earlier this year that talks about the sometimes counterintuitive ways thatvideo games both help and harm children. Kutner and Olson are based out ofHarvard Medical School and Mass General Hospital, so we are extremely excited that they've agreed to present some of their findings to the local dev community!"
Info:
Wednesday, May 14, 7pm
The Skellig, Waltham
Free
Interesting topic at tonight's Boston Post Mortem: virtual goods.
"Our speaker will be Ravi Mehta, Vice President of Publishing at Viximo, also formerly of Microsoft Game Studios. He’ll be giving a talk on the virtual goods market, which encompasses those little $1 gifts in Facebook as well as all the arms and armor people are buying and selling in MMOGs."
Info:
Tuesday, June 10 @ 7pm
The Skellig, Waltham
Gambling and the Boylston Chess Club which has nurtured well-known professional players like poker player Dan Harrington and backgammon and poker player Bill Robertie.
An article on John Chang, 50, a member of the MIT blackjack team, that looks at some of the real history of the team and its links to business in Boston as the opening of the movie 21 approaches. "He’s the Micky Rosa character in the book played by Kevin Spacey in the movie (you can find his blog here, and the April issue of Men’s Vogue also has a piece that quotes him at length."
"[O]ver time, the once close-knit teams fell apart. They were partly victims of their own success, says Chang. Everybody seemed to want bigger stakes or for their investments to grow faster, he says. A number of players decided to form new, smaller teams.
Chang draws a lot of parallels to the challenges businesses face. People become dissatisfied with their compensation as the company grows. Or they miss the entrepreneurial environment and go off to find it again somewhere else. “I guess this is the essence of startups,” he says. And it wasn’t like he had much leverage to convince people to stay. “I had not hidden anything from anybody. It was all transparent, so it was easy to break away. We had no contracts. We didn’t have golden-handcuff-type benefits. You didn’t vest, anything like that.” Chang estimates the MIT teams took about $10 million out of casinos over the years. “Although it seems like a lot of money, it’s not really a lot of money, not in a business sense,” he says."
MIT students erected a giant black 20-sided die in memorial to recently deceased Dungeons and Dragons creator Gary Gygax. This contemplative shot by Eric Shmiedl in MIT's newspaper seems like an illustration of the importance of personal passion and the temptations of the mainstream world. MIT should really have a permanent 20-sided die memorial installed there.
The real-life MIT card-counters on whose story the movie 21 is "based" now teach students how to play . The movie must be great marketing and they must be hoping that the public will get as excited by blackjack as they are by Texas Hold'Em.
"Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates Mike Aponte and David
Irvine recounted the rise and fall of their careers as world-famous,
card-counting blackjack players at their alma mater last night, as a
movie based on their experiences is set to premiere.
The upcoming movie, "21," was filmed last year on Boston University's
campus. The movie and a future HBO series are based on Ben Mezrich's
best-selling book, "Bringing Down the House," whose characters are
based on some of the MIT students involved in the team of card
counters. Card counting allows players to determine their odds against
those of the house depending on the cards that have already been dealt,
and to bet big when cards turn in their favor.
"
Axiom Gallery's new exhibit Art and Math opened recently and runs through April 27th.
"Art and Math explores the artists use of mathematical concepts in sculpture, photography, and new media. The show will also examine how, through the use of mathematical thought artist can make the journey from awe to beauty to humor."
One of the exhibiting artists Keith Peters discusses the opening which was attended by well-known programmer Stephen Wolfram and posts a video of the scene at the opening (above).
The piece he exhibited is related to his game Gravity Pods that you can try here.
The image above is by another of the exhibit artists Nathan Selikoff
This work by Kevin Van Aelst uses egg yolk to represent a Cantor set.
Although the video game industry has been doing pretty well in Massachusetts, the legislature is focusing on them for some tough treatment with a new bill being proposed and discussed on March 18th:
"HB1423
attempts to restrict the sale of video games with violent content to
minors, making the sale of such titles illegal. No similar law is
currently in effect as pertains to video games, movies, music or
literature with violent content.
The bill, taking the “games-as-porn” approach, is titled such
because it uses the rational that sexually explicit material and
violent video games are equally harmful to minors. If this bill is
passed, it would officially change the legal definition of content that
is “harmful to minors” to include anything that “…depicts violence in a
manner patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult
community, so as to appeal predominantly to the morbid interest in
violence of minors; is patently contrary to prevailing standards of
adults in the county where the offense was committed as to suitable
material for such minors; and lacks serious literary, artistic,
political or scientific value for minors.”"
"* This bill would violate the First Amendment rights of video game
developers and the public for whom we make video games. In particular,
on Monday a federal appeals court confirmed a ban on a similar law in
Minnesota. (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9895920-7.html).
The bill is a waste of taxpayers' money.
* The video game industry has an effective rating system in place
to distinguish which games are no appropriate for minors. In particular,
it's more effective and provides far more information than the ratings
system in place for movies.
* ----. The
Massachusetts game industry is booming, employs thousands of people
and provides many hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the
Massachusetts economy. H. 1423 sends the wrong message, that
Massachusetts does not welcome the video game development industry."
Mayor Menino says he supports the bill but it looks likely to be overturned given its similarity to other laws that have been overturned around the country.
Boston Post Mortem lets you get a peak into the world of video game development. Tonight the speaker is a NY game developer from Kaos Studios.
"From
Boards to Binks: Creating the Cinematics of Frontlines: Fuel of War
Delve into the occult world of cinematic development for Frontlines:
Fuel of War from THQ's Kaos Studios. Join us as Coray Seifert presents all of the nitty gritty
details, from early storyboards and ritual sacrifices, to final export
and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Takeaway is a deeper knowledge of
this studio's cinematic process, and a resonant fear of your neighbors
to the south."
Info:
Wednesday March 12, 7pm
The Skellig
Waltham
Directions here: http://bostonpostmortem.org/SkelligDirections.htm
Stephen Colbert confronts Harvard Law prof Charles Nesson over the value of poker in education and in life.
Was the Patriots spy scandal part of a Spy v. Spy feud?
Harvard's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society (clunky name) will be using poker to teach Boston tweens:
In the spring it plans to hold a workshop on using poker to teach math to children, to be held at the Smith Leadership Academy, a Boston charter school for at-risk kids in the sixth through eighth grades. “We see great potential for reaching our students in an innovative way,” said Karmala Sherwood, the school’s headmaster.
Trailer for 21: an upcoming movie on MIT card counters loosely based on the MIT blackjack team. Shot in and around Boston with a reference in the trailer to Ivy League clothier J. Press.
Will Massachusetts make online gambling and poker a felony? And why?
"Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick wants jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for those who play poker and other casino games for real money online" in his bill to allow casinos in the state. "'If you were cynical about it, you'd think that they're trying to set up a monopoly for the casinos,'" said David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Conference on the educational significance of poker at Harvard Law on Saturday, Nov. 10, part of Prof. Charles Nesson's Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society: Speakers include James McManus, author of Positively Fifth Street. See our calendar or the conference website for details.
Harvard Law prof Charles Nesson's quest to legitimize poker. He "wants governments to relax restrictions on poker players. He has formed
the Global Poker Strategic Thinking Society with some of his students
to promote poker as a fun learning tool and to redefine it as a game of
skill, rather than a game of chance."
Play bridge in Davis Square with the Davis Square Bridge Club: "an informal group of bridge enthusiasts who
meet every Wednesday night at 7:30 P.M. at the Diesel Cafe in Davis Square,
Somerville, Massachusetts, a block toward Porter Square from
the Davis Square T-Stop. We are a group of mixed abilities, some learners, some
tournament grade. We play Duplicate and Chicago Style bridge, and learn from each
other by discussing the bid and play and by reading bridge publications."
MIT Prank: John Harvard as Master Chief from Halo (image from I Heart.Net) (via Digg)
Charles Nesson, founder of the Berkman Center, among other accomplishments is keen to use poker to teach life and business skills through school and university strategic thinking societies. Interesting fact: Nesson "once sold a computer programme he devised based on five-card draw, jacks-or-better – a variation of poker – for $50,000."
At $90 per two-person team it's pretty pricey, but if you dream of running the Amazing Race you could test your interest with Urban Dare on April 28th. You can use PDAs, GPS, cellphones while you run through Boston answering trivia questions by taking photographs of riddle locations or facing dares (skill events). Some people take it very seriously and others are repeat competitors so don't think the race will be easy.
A competitor describes taking part in the San Diego Urban Dare.
The race begins at noon on the Boston Common.
Our sister site Metaboston TechNews posted on this unfortunate incident:
Andrew Rosenblum, the founder and one of the hosts of the internet video game show GameLife, has been arrested for allegedly making threats that refer to the VA Tech shootings. Rosenblum, a student at Boston University, was arrested at his parents' Needham home after allegedly emailing disturbing messages to a woman he had dated.
An segment of the GameLife show with Rosenblum:
Harvard doctoral student in chemistry Thomas Snyder wins the second World Sudoku Championship defeating "140 entrants from 32 countries in a three-day championship in Prague."
Harvard holds its first video game tournament increasing the social role of gaming in the area: "It’s about people getting together, joking, and having a good time.
Gaming really can be a social thing—it can actually be a powerful
experience."
From our sister site Metaboston TechNews comes this information about an upcoming video game competition to be played on a High Definition movie screen.
A great idea: "TheDigitalArcade.com and Brookline's Coolidge Corner Theatre are proud to
present, "THE POWER OF X", an all night multiplayer gaming event
featuring two top titles for the Xbox 360. On April 21st, gamers will
experience the Xbox 360 like never before; on a 70 foot, High
Definition Digital Screen ..." Games to be played: Gears of War and Guitar Hero II. Coolidge Corner will also be showing game movies like Silent Hill.
Curt Schilling is turning out to be something of a modern-day renaissance man. In addition to learning Japanese in order to better get along with Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima, the pitcher is also the founder of a video game company with the not very original name of Green Monster Games. The company's first game will use artwork from comic book artist Todd McFarlane and fantasy writer R.A. Salvatore. Interestingly, the studio is focusing on the very challenging massively multiplayer online game field which has caused problems for game veterans like Wil Wright's Sims and games based on well-known brands like The Matrix. This seems like such a challenge that the folks over at Terra Nova assume it must be passion rather than profit-seeking driving Schilling's investment.
At the risk of confusing history as much as teaching it the game Cargo puts you into the middle of the Boston Tea Party where you toss tea into Boston Harbor to protest British policies but try to protect the tea of the ship captain who bribed you to spare it. A nice cynical touch. Here's a pretty positive review from the game website Board Game Geek.
Interesting interview with board game designer Alan R. Moon who works in the German style although based in Massachusetts. He recently put out a Mayflower-based game called New England. Here's one analysis of several of his games.
No stories from great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather about what it was like to come over on the Mayflower? Well, you can see for yourself in the New England board game. Like so many of the best board games it is German-style although designed by game designers from the North Shore. Buy land, plant crops, bring over new colonists in order to succeed in your new community. A review here.
Boston University's Chess Club will hold its 10th Annual BU Open on November 6th. The tournament will be held at Back Court, George Sherman Union, 775 Commonwealth Ave. in Boston with registration running from 8am - 9am and the first tournament round begginning at 9:30am. Since it is an open tournament you can step up to the challenge. You can register online and get more information at this site.
