GRABBINGSAND

Category: Gaming

  • Snapshots from a Beta Test

    Star Wars Galaxies – Beta Testing, a set on Flickr. In 2003, I beta-tested Star Wars Galaxies, the first MMO set in the Lucas-built world of my youth’s fascination. Set in a period between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, players could make their way in various worlds as pistoleers, as crafters, even…

  • Game In Stone

    I’m not buying a PlayStation 3. Not today, tomorrow or anytime soon. And yet, I am loving this international print campaign (developed by BBDO Chile). Sure, there’s a “boy” version, but this “girl” version is so much better. Why? The boy looks like he’s just playing. The girl looks like she’s winning. (Found on JoyStiq.)

  • On Design, Rebuilding and Audio-Surfing

    Dieter Rams was director of design at Braun from 1962 to 1995. He designed watches, clock radios, cigarette lighters and countless other products, and all according to his own ten principles of design. Good design is innovative. Good design makes a product useful. Good design is aesthetic. Good design helps us to understand a product.…

  • Preaching To The Choir

    Wil Wheaton was this year’s keynote speaker at PAX ’07, the annual Penny Arcade fan festival. He does what he has come to do best. He reminisces about the glory of arcades, a foundational component to his (and my) generation. He’s 35 now. So am I. And he goes on to say how video games,…

  • The Invisible Pigeon-Holing Council

    The first was good. The second is just as good, maybe better. I’m talking about “Zero Punctuation,” a weekly series of mashed-up videos by Yahtzee Croshaw. They’re hosted at The Escapist. What are they? Well, basically, Yahtzee (who is British and lives in Australia) picks a video game (recent or not so) and gives it…

  • Magic Wands Added To TSA Checklists

    Just Like Real Life, originally uploaded by grabbingsand. An article in yesterday’s edition of The Australian has assigned yet more blame for society’s ills on online role-playing games. Not only is MMO addiction contributing to a lack of general hygiene and a certain amount of social disinteraction, but now it would appear that MMOs are…

  • SaySwap: Mea Culpa, Conditionally

    An apology might be in order. After six months of waiting, most of it spent passively or even apathetically, I have received not one, but two games from SaySwap‘s video game trading service. Miracle of miracles … If you recall, I had some major issues with SaySwap, mostly centered around a lack of depth in…

  • Gaming, Blogging, Following-up and Considering

    (Put your geek hats on, we’re going in deep …) Of late, I’ve been playing through this 10-day trial of Lord Of The Rings OnlineTM (sub-title: “Shadows Of AngmarTM“). Some of you might recall that I participated in the late stages of LOTRO‘s beta testing. At the time, I wasn’t very impressed. Muddle Earth. Character…

  • Milwaukee Is Fresh Out Of News

    That’s it. No murders. No traffic accidents. No weather of note. Nothing’s happening. How else can anyone explain this: The subject of their latest hard-hitting investigative report is none other than PictoChat, the least interesting feature of the Nintendo DS, perhaps the biggest selling portable gaming system on Earth. Why PictoChat? Because child molesters might…

  • Jack’s Back

    Wow. Has it really been 11 years? Jellyvision‘s classic You Don’t Know Jack line of PC trivia games was always challenging, always funny and always a hit at a party or two. Eventually, players would get to the end of the line on the variety of questions and start memorizing answers, but those first few…