Category:General MU* Feeds

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1 Top MUD Sites Discussion Feed
2 MUD Connector Discussion Feed
3 MUD Connector Review Feed
4 TinyTalk Feed
5 Electric Soup Feed
6 GATEWAY announcements
7 community.pennmush.org Feed
8 Wikia's Gaming Blog Feed
9 Gamasutra News Feed
10 Ten Ton Hammer Feed
11 The Escapist Feed
12 Lost Souls Public Changelog Feed

[edit] Top MUD Sites Discussion Feed

I am available ...: Forum: Advertising for Staff Posted By: Greetmir Post Time: 07-23-2008 at 02:07 PM
FALLOUT LIVES!: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: Shady Post Time: 07-22-2008 at 01:04 PM
Looking for a worthwhile, consistent MUD: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: eitreach Post Time: 07-21-2008 at 11:12 PM
Why is immersion better in MUDs?: Forum: Tavern of the Blue Hand Posted By: Violette Post Time: 07-21-2008 at 02:28 PM
On Facebook? Join a cause!: Forum: Tavern of the Blue Hand Posted By: Brody Post Time: 07-20-2008 at 12:48 PM
Software engineer job available!: Forum: Tavern of the Blue Hand Posted By: Brody Post Time: 07-19-2008 at 02:40 PM
Encouraging Money Velocity: Forum: Advanced MUD Concepts Posted By: Sergeytov Post Time: 07-19-2008 at 11:10 AM
Looking for RP? Like Tolkien? Try a MUSH!: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: tavarilyn Post Time: 07-19-2008 at 06:58 AM
Looking for a secondary MUD: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: Throttle Post Time: 07-18-2008 at 11:38 PM
Looking for a home sweet home!: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: Tuah Post Time: 07-18-2008 at 04:57 PM
Forbidden Lands MUD: Forum: Advertising for Players Posted By: Chrysostom Post Time: 07-18-2008 at 02:38 PM
How much Information to put on a MUD Website: Forum: MUD and RPG Webmasters Posted By: Chrysostom Post Time: 07-18-2008 at 02:31 PM
HI: Forum: Introduce Yourself Posted By: Chrysostom Post Time: 07-18-2008 at 01:33 PM
Need a new MUD/MU* !!!: Forum: Newbie Help Posted By: Dr. Evil Phil Post Time: 07-16-2008 at 10:25 PM
heyo there! I lurk no more!: Forum: Introduce Yourself Posted By: Dr. Evil Phil Post Time: 07-16-2008 at 09:55 PM
Characters on an RPI - Memories?: Forum: Advanced MUD Concepts Posted By: Delerak Post Time: 07-16-2008 at 01:45 AM
Clandestine's Third Epic Quest Scenario taking place July 15th: Forum: MUD Announcements Posted By: silvanoth Post Time: 07-15-2008 at 05:32 PM
Question: Forum: Tavern of the Blue Hand Posted By: Rathik Post Time: 07-12-2008 at 08:37 PM
The PG13 Dilemma: Forum: Legal Issues Posted By: Tenebrae Post Time: 07-12-2008 at 12:53 AM
Maiden Desmodus in Development: Forum: MUD Announcements Posted By: Orrin Post Time: 07-11-2008 at 05:37 PM

[edit] MUD Connector Discussion Feed

New mud needs staff, please read if you're interested.: Posted to: Mud Staffing Board (July 23, 2008)
room painter looking for a MUD: Posted to: Mud Staffing Board (July 23, 2008)
Sermon MUD seeks playtesters!: Posted to: Mud Promotions (July 23, 2008)
The things you forget to expect from the game you've coded: Posted to: Mud Humor and Anecdotes (July 23, 2008)
ASCII Symbol Question: Posted to: Coding and Mud Design (Advanced) (July 22, 2008)
Anyone interested in creating a Twilight series based game with me?: Posted to: General Discussions (July 22, 2008)
New Rot Paradox MUD: Posted to: Mud Promotions (July 22, 2008)
ROT -Paradox MUD Startup Error: Posted to: Coder's Forum (July 22, 2008)
Experienced Coder looking for Established Mud: Posted to: Mud Staffing Board (July 22, 2008)
OE-Mud is looking for Coders .. Some Details inside :): Posted to: Mud Staffing Board (July 22, 2008)

[edit] MUD Connector Review Feed

Review: Duris: Land of BloodLust: Duris is a great game with lots of classes/races and the PKill is
unrivaled anywhere. There is also full looting so if you don't like
someone, just kill them and take their equipment.

Duris's website also has automated logs that show a fair bit of
backscroll in pvp raids. It's definitely helpful for new players as
they can get accustomed to what things do what.

All the other reviews are accurate in regards to the upsides of the
mud, yet not a single one mentions any of the downsides. Th... (posted: 2008-07-10T20:45:51-05:00)
Review: Rek-Mud 4: The Four Kingdoms: Hey all, Rek-Mud the four kingdoms is currently starting
up again and is already thriving with pk. Some of the major
areas that the mud is doing well is, the amount of time needed
to be good, the active playerbase, and the acceptance of new ideas.

I have played other muds where I have spent over 2000 hours on
my character before just to become strong and kill someone
every few days. With Rek-Mud you don't need to put in 100's of
hours. I log on after work or sometimes even on my lunch break... (posted: 2008-07-10T20:41:50-05:00)
Review: Edge of Midnight: I have played EoM for many years and the player base has always been
friendly, and willing to help. The nobles are always helpful as well,
and tend to show newbies how to get around the game.

The mud is always updated and fixed up fast as the credit goes all
towards the nobles as well.

The game is quite great to be frank, but the only problem I have or
anyone would, being a veteran to mudding for many years, would have
to be the Admin Pyros. I do have respect for the guy, dont get me
wrong,... (posted: 2008-07-10T20:40:47-05:00)
Review: By Right of Blood: By right of blood is a small community which is good. The owner,
Niko, runs events for the Sabbat and Cam weekly, as well as another
sphere or two, so there is the consistent ability for a staff run
event, and open time otherwise for rp between players.

Overall the world is well built and large. It has good players, and
is small enough to allow new players to get involved easily.

... (posted: 2008-07-10T20:35:37-05:00)
Review: Forgotten Kingdoms: It is hard in online games to strike a balance between gameplay
and roleplaying. Most times, you find yourself immersed in either
an aggressive PvP environment or in an entirely specific roleplaying
environment. Neither is really satisfying for very long.

Forgotten Kingdoms strikes a good balance of roleplay and gameplay.
It is roleplay with teeth, you might say. The players are
friendly towards new players and help to facilitate an enjoyable
experience. Having an established storyline (F... (posted: 2008-06-30T21:17:02-05:00)
Review: Unwritten Legends: I started playing Unwritten Legends in its first incarnation, as
Realms of Exile. Even in the beginning stages, the game was amazing,
and I was drawn in right away. It was actually the first MUD I'd ever
played, and it's really been the only one. I try other games, and
they just don't measure up.

The level of detail in the game is incredible and the sheer size of
the world is astounding. The staff in the game are very friendly, and
actually listen to the input of every player, even those who ar... (posted: 2008-06-30T21:13:34-05:00)
Review: Aabahran: The Forsaken Lands: Aabahran the Forsaken Lands is a higly intense MUD, both in aspects
of player-killing and roleplay. The game is run by a highly competent
immortal staff and played by a highly enthusiastic playerbase.

Whether you are very pk-intensive, very rp-intensive, or a mix of the
two, you cannot go wrong with Forsaken Lands. Every class and race is
balanced, none better than the other. Roleplay is enforced, absolutely
no out-of-character comments are allowed, and at the same time, PK is
allowed in every ... (posted: 2008-06-30T21:12:09-05:00)
Review: 3-Kingdoms: My time at 3Kingdoms is still amazing, having started mudding here in
1996, retiring from mudding in 1998 and then returning in 2001. I
guess as they say, once you are hooked, you are hooked!

The playerbase is huge and very diverse. I have met people and made
friends in Israel, US, Sweden, Australia, Denmark just to name a few.

The mud has 38209 rooms you can explore and 88 quests you can solve.
Quests are optional, but completing them gives you quest points which
in turn gives your character ... (posted: 2008-06-30T21:08:11-05:00)
Review: Haven: I have been playing Haven for about three weeks now and i have
nothing but outstanding remarks for this seasoned MUD. In this
following review im going to cover: Quests, Playability, Playerbase,
Wizard Staff, Guilds, Combat and of course, the overview.

Quests: The quests on this game are of pure choice, but if done you
get rewards. Now some quests on here are dependant on some skills,
some of them require combat. Some of them require delivering a letter
for the town, and another is of explorati... (posted: 2008-06-30T21:06:15-05:00)
Review: Awake 2062: I've played awake for several years now, and frankly, I've just
about had all I can take from the mud. The world is actually very
small, with many dead ends and areas/doors that no longer work. Almost
half the mud's spaces are just highways that go on for 50+ rooms,
with pretty much repeated descriptions and little else. Of all these
times I played, not one new zone have been added- just zones getting
closed down, a few equipment editings, etc.

The feeling I get from the game is that it can't m... (posted: 2008-06-26T20:21:57-05:00)
Review: The Jungle Mud: This mud overall is a 10 out of 10. Tons of unique classes, and
races. The only one that actually involves animals, that aren't OGRES
or Vampires or Pirates, lol.. Anyway, the Staff is very kind, they are
always looking for good builders that have experience.

The Mud has a wide selection of clans, but unfortunately since its a
dry season we are low on players, so it mean there's no clan leaders
here. So always looking for more players to come in and take over.

This mud is very mature, hardly n... (posted: 2008-06-26T20:13:20-05:00)
Review: Arcane Nites: Some words from a happy returning player. I left AN in 2001 after 3
years of intensive playing because it was becoming evident the imm
staff not only did not listen ANY of the player request, but also
cheated when their used their PK. A lot of bugs were not adressed even
if they were easy to fix, crash often made you lose hours of leveling
/ eq gathering. So you would ask why did you stay this long in the
first place ? Because it was a great game, and its flaw were more in
the people at the head... (posted: 2008-06-26T20:06:05-05:00)
Review: Prophecies of the Pattern: 1. OOC channel stinks. No one ever seems to have cheerful or fun
conversation, so it feels like you're inside a tomb.

2. RP guilds require OOC 'courtesies' to those who are of higher rank
than you are. Another player observed that this seems
to encourage 'power trips' from higher-ranked players. Certainly,
there is more of a sense of ... stuffiness, and respect given to
position than I have seen in other muds. As I have only one
guilded character, in the White Tower, and... (posted: 2008-06-26T20:03:47-05:00)
Review: Godwars: Saints from Shadows: This customized version of 1.2.2 dystopia is a mudders delight, if
you want true gameplay and pure pvp this would be the godwars for you.
This isn't for the weak, you don't get maxed within 2 hours and then
out killing.

The majority of the gameplay comes from the remort based system that
goes five deep. So you will be killing-gaining experience-and questing
in between remorts. This godwars isn't going anywhere for a long
while, it's been up for quite awhile, about five to six years to be
accura... (posted: 2008-06-26T20:00:35-05:00)
Review: FoxMUD: FoxMUD is different from most other muds in that really is a
community, NOT just a bunch of random people killing monsters,
leveling up, and mostly ignoring each other (something I've seen all
too often elsewhere). On Fox, people are friendly and welcoming, and
it's easy to get to know other players well. All the immortals/staff
make themselves very accessible to the players and interact on a
regular basis through moderated quests and other events.

Fox's players are all people with lives outsid... (posted: 2008-06-26T19:58:22-05:00)

[edit] TinyTalk Feed

Tinytalk Episode 021: Interview with Shawn McCann

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Interview with Shawn McCann, North America's first Immersive Learning/Gaming Librarian

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Special thanks to Siobhan for suggesting this interview! If you have mushing questions you'd like answered, or suggestions for future shows, send email (or audio files) to tinytalk at javelin.pennmush.org. You can also leave a voice message at 206-333-1542. Creative Commons License

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 020: Is MUSHing dead?

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Is MUSHing dead?

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Music for this episode

If you have mushing questions you'd like answered, or suggestions for future shows, send email (or audio files) to tinytalk at javelin.pennmush.org. You can also leave a voice message at 206-333-1542. Creative Commons License

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 019: Halting State

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Halting State and point of view

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Halting State, by Charles Stross
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, by Tom Robbins
The 2008 Hugo award nominees
PMOG, the passively multiplayer online game
Philippe Mangold's Voyage dans l'Ã©ther album

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 018: Good to Great for MUSH

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[01:00] Good to Great for MUSH
[12:35] News and Notes

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 017: WWORAA

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[01:10] Interview with WORA admin Rasheem
[14:25] Javelin on WORA
[16:35] News and Notes

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

When online RPGs Attack (WORA)
Obviously Grimy's Des mÃ©lodies Ã faire danser les ours album
(Read bboard 1 on M*U*S*H for information on Elvira's "Managing your MUSH" working picnic on Sunday, Feb 10)

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 016: Happy 2008!

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[00:54] My 2008 MUSH resolutions
[03:52] Staff rotation
[06:54] One Laptop Per Child

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Indie Press Revolution) (a place to find and buy indie rpgs)
Nethack wiki
The One Laptop Per Child donation site
The OLPC wiki (a good place for developers to start)
Obviously Grimy's Des mÃ©lodies Ã faire danser les ours album

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 015: OGR and Gateway

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast: Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[01:35] Interview with Siobhan, co-founder and Head Wizard of Online Gaming Resource
[20:09] Interview with Ra, Head Wizard of Gateway: The MU* Community

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 014: C'est Caillois

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast: Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[00:41] OtherVoice promo
[01:10] Caillois's classification of games

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 013: Women and MUSH

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast: Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[00:50] Audio interview montage with Trinsec, Elvira, and Nymeria
[17:25] Visit to Shoujo-Ai MUSH
[19:17] News and notes

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 012a: ITBG announcement

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast: A quick announcement of the ITBG conference on the podcast.

[edit] Electric Soup Feed

Kushiel MUX: I came to Kushiel MUX, looking for an interesting game that had a
historical theme. I had become discontent on the current game I was
playing on, due to high OOC angst and drama. I had never read the
books at all, yet I had no problem fitting my character into the
scheme of things and getting sucked right in.
Cosmic Cuttlefish: The Cosmic Cuttlefish, winner of the "Most Disorganized Spaceship" award, is a lovely place to MUSH. I have found that the staff are friendly (and nigh-omnipotent, I can only assume their blood is 50% coffee by now) and what few players are on are top-notch. The theme is a unique retro sci-fi comedy that summons up memories of Douglas Adams' unique style of writing. Character creation is smooth, there are plenty of openings for players of pretty much any description (I play as an intangible Quantum Entity that got stuck in the hyperdrive and was approved in seconds) and I enjoy the chaotic absurdity in everything from the captain (which was, when last checked, a bucket in one of the broom closets) to the Hampster Processing Facility of dubious origin and purpose.
Happy November!: I'm late, and slacking, and for that I apologize. For those that do not know, I am pregnant in real life, expecting my first child :) It's been a tiring time, and I've been working on the new site in fits and spirts. That being said, it's nearly complete - There's just small details that need to be finalized, and we'll be ready to make the complete switch. If you are interested in checking out what's there, and getting a jump on registering for the new site, please check it out at the following location: http://www.electricsoup.net/ES As always, if you have any questions, please let me know! I hope you all are having a happy holiday season (even though it hasn't started yet, much to the surprise of various retailers and bell ringers) and continue to have one through the new year! Happy Mu*ing! -Sally
Problems with Arabian Moons: So, I decided to close my latest attempt at a game. The funny thing is since that time in the last 3 days 4 different games have asked me to look at things for them. I suppose I should be honored. But I keep seeing things that gave me issues. So I thought Iâd put together a little post about things I learned from my failed games. For those of you that don't know me from jack. I'll give you a little BG on me to start with Background: Impster has been running table top games and larps since 85. I start playing games on Compu$erve and GEnie a year or so before that time. These games would come to be known as MUDs. Believe it or not I was playing back on GemStone Ver. I and II (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GemStone_IV). I've lived in Oklahoma, Seattle, Florida, and Texas. I'm a Rep for Steve Jacksons Game, AEG, and I used to be part of white wolf (yeah, big deal everyone's a rep for some of these companies ;). I've been involved in national 'fan clubs' from StarFleet To Klingons To the Cam. In most of those orgs I somehow get sucked into local and national leadership positions. Granted I havenât done any of that for over 5 years. And I've staffed on a handful of games and I've made 2 failed attempts to start my own MU* games. So I've been around a while. And when it comes to games I've been known to cheat. Yes, I fully admit if I sit there and roll dice that comes up and says everyone dies. I will normally ignore the dice if it doesn't make sense for the story. To me the story is the most important thing not what the dice say but by the same token I've been known to adjust the dice against the players because it made sense for the story.
Sixth ITBG Conference: The sixth Innovations in Text-Based Gaming Conference will take place on 13th October, at 3 PM (US Central Time). The first half of it will be hosted by M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201), and the second half by MPUG (puggy.mushpark.com 9033). ITBG will be opened with the keynote speech by Temperance of Shangrila. After that, the following four presentations will be held:
Star Trek: Gamma One: I applied for a character on Gamma One and my application was denied after quite a lengthy process. While my concept was denied, I had the chance to re-apply; however, I declined. I nevertheless retain a very high opinion of the game.
ITBG - Seeking presenters!: Innovations in Text-based Gaming conference (ITBG) is a mostly annual event which has taken place on M*U*S*H in Fall since 1998. ITBG is a gathering of people playing and making text-based games, with the purpose of sharing new ideas. The logs of previous ITBGs are available at http://mush.pennmush.org. This year, the sixth ITBG conference will be hosted on October 13th by M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201) and MPUG (puggy.mushpark.com 9033). People who'd like to hold presentations about their innovations (already implemented, or yet to be implemented) in text-based gaming are invited to propose presentations.
ES - Issues: Hey all, I've been made of some issues (the login issue reappearing, as well as one with comments and an inability to post any) involving the site and there's some stuff that's lead me to try to do something to switch us to our new site sooner -- so there may be a need for redoing logins in the near future. All content will be ported over, so no worries there. At first the site might be a little more bare bones than I'd like, but it'll be functional, something that we're having issues with here right now! If you have any questions the feedback link on the main page should still work. If you find that it does not, you can reach me via email at sally at electricsoup dot net (do the conversion! :) -- stay tuned, and sorry about this issue!! EDIT: All content articles are ported over, and the new forums have been stood up. I am hoping I should have comments and other site widgets over ASAP. We're ready for beta testers, so if you're interested please message me here on the boards or via my above email address. Most current features on this site still work - FYI. -Sally
How did summer end so fast?: It went so fast, I totally forgot August! :) Just having returned from my annual geek pilgrimage down to Atlanta for Dragon*Con, and with the reopening of one of my own games on the horizon, I find myself renewed. I always seem to, when fall comes - isn't that sort of opposite? But in the mush world, that's when things start anew. People come back to school, populations rise on our games, and we gain back our old regulars full time, and gain new people to the worlds we've created. It's an exciting time for all, and Electricsoup is no exception. We've decided on a new CMS platform for the site that will have much better forums, account management, and article submission. I hope to have it done prior to the end of the year (I'm setting a realistic timeline :P) so stay tuned. If you'd like to see new sections/features/etc on the new site set up, I'd love to hear about it! Happy Mu*ing! -Sally
X-Men Movieverse review: * X-Men Movieverse
* Address telnet://xmenmovieverse.com 7007
* Website http://www.xmenmovieverse.com
* Opened: Summer, 2001 Disclaimer: the writer of this review is a player on the game and has assisted in some minor staff duties. X-Men Movieverse (XMM) is a small roleplay-centric game based on the "reality-based" movieverse of the popular X-Men movie that was released in 2000. Subsequent movies (X2 in 2003, X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006) have added to the canon of the game, though in the case of the later two movies, incorporation of canon has been selective rather than comprehensive. Without making any prejudicial statements about the quality of the movies themselves, in general the X2 movie has been used as thematic reference material, while the third movie has been largely ignored. The game itself started in 2001 on a MUCK platform, and moved to a MOO platform in the summer of 2006. In between, "ownership" of the game has changed hands at least once.
Building Staffing: the forgotten part: Getting Hit By A Bus That's what I always called it. As it happens, I was hit by illness and not by a form of transport, but thankfully I'd done the 'what if...?' preparations anyway. Never forget that something unforeseen might happen to you. The best part of being a good building staffer is knowledge and procedures - and if no one else knows your plans for expansion, or how the staff-side of your building approval works, then a lot of your work in setting up that knowledge and those procedures will end up being wasted.
Building Staffing part 3: In previous parts we discussed building the grid, and designing policies. Now we'll talk about news, tracking your buildings, and conclude with a discussion of code. Building News Your news should contain your standards and policies, a building tutorial, and a list of your player building-support code. Consider having a mini-tutorial that explains how to meet your standards, and a news item about grievance procedures. You don't have to write the tutorial yourself, but you must link to a at least one. I like to link to several - different people learn in different ways, and will prefer different tutorials. Electric Soup (http://www.electricsoup.net/), the Online Gaming Resource (http://www.ogrmush.com/) and the TinyMUX wiki (http://www.tinymux.org/wiki/) are all great places to find tutorials.
Building Staffing part 2: Last time we talked about the grid design. Now let's move on. Standards and Policies Your basic standards and policies will, of course, be about building quality. Unless you have good reasons otherwise, you'll want every room to have an @desc and to be named something sensible. To allow people to follow each other around, you'll want exits to have an @osucc and an @odrop. It's fairly standard to insist on @descs and @succs for exits as well. It's common to have a policy stating that all RP must be in approved rooms, and all building should take place in a Building Nexus off the OOC area. This helps you keep some control over what's constructed in the MUSH and where it's put - without that sort of control, you can end up with player-constructed buildings which defy suspension of disbelief, or which assert things which are out of scope for the MUSH. Or, of course, you can end up with buildings which are just poorly desced, poorly coded, and incredibly badly spelled.
Building Staffing part 1: Do you want to be the best building wizard in MUSHdom? Yes, it's a grandiose title. It's also a grandiose ambition, but one I believe well worth aiming for. Sure, noone's ever said 'hey, the RP on this MUSH sucks, but the building is so neat I think I'll hang around' - or if anyone has said it, I've never heard it. But a good building wiz can make life a lot easier for the rest of the staff. At its simplest, the job of the building staff is to construct and maintain the MUSH's grid, and to supervise the creation of private buildings for the players. But a great building staffer is more - a great building staffer knows exactly what's out there, and can suggest settings for the RP staff while they're still working out their plots.
Happy July!: Happy Canada Day to our friends up north, and Happy Fourth for those here in the states! For the rest of you, just a happy July! :) Last month saw my first podcast as a guest of Javelin's TinyTalk series (If you haven't checked it out yet, he's up to #7 - they're really great, and I highly recommend) as well as the addition of the PennMush community feed to the front page of ES. We put out a call too for reviews, but didn't get any! That's ok - I know you were just out enjoying the nice weather! :) The site is doing well, but we could always use more content! Check out our latest poll, and consider submitting a game review - or an article - to the site. We grow only by your submissions!

[edit] GATEWAY announcements

Email addresses: Hello Ambassadors, We're preparing mid-July to do an idle purge, and an Embassy check. So please make sure you log on regularly. As well please make sure to update your e-mail address. I sent out an e-mail to every Ambassador yesterday, and I got quite a few bounces. Please pass this on to your fellow Ambassador's whom may not be on this
Staff opportunities: Good morning, everyone. Gateway - The MU* Community is currently seeking to expand its staffing opportunities. Gateway is looking for a minimum of 2 energetic individuals to join our dynamic staff. Qualified individuals should be self-motivated, self-reliant, have superior player service skills, and enjoy solving
Firefox 3: Hi folks, Don't forget to download your copy of Firefox 3 today. You don't have to install it, but they're going for the world record. [link] Ra, Coordinator Gateway, The MU* Community [link] telnet://connect.mu-gateway.ne t:6700 "Turn around, look at what you see In her face, the mirror of your dreams
45-Day Reminder for Ambassadors of Gateway: Good day! If you've not logged onto Gateway within 45 days, please do so to ensure your Embassy is being manned. This is your 45-day reminder for Ambassadors to log on to GATEWAY - The MU* Community. You can connect at connect.mu-gateway.net:6677 or 6700. Thanks and have a super day! Embassy Staff GATEWAY - The MU* Community
Policy review: Good evening, everyone. I apologize that it took so long, but the policy review is finally complete. The updated files have been installed in the +news directory, and on the website. If you wish to provide feedback for current or new policiies, please don't hesitate to +pitch those ideas to us. Thanks,
45-Day Reminder for Ambassadors of Gateway: Good day! If you've not logged onto Gateway within 45 days, please do so to ensure your Embassy is being manned. This is your 45-day reminder for Ambassadors to log on to GATEWAY - The MU* Community. You can connect at connect.mu-gateway.net:6677 or 6700. Thanks and have a super day! Embassy Staff GATEWAY - The MU* Community
Connection address: Hi everyone, It was previously announced that we would stop using the old OGR connection address at the end of January, 2008. I have been a little lenient on that, and up to this point, it has continued to work. However, on May 1st, 2008 the old OGR addresses will cease to work. By then you should have updated your connection information. For those of
45-day Reminder for Embassies: Good day! If you've not logged onto Gateway within 45 days, please do so to ensure your Embassy is being manned. This is your 45-day reminder for Ambassadors to log on to GATEWAY - The MU* Community. You can connect at connect.mu-gateway.net:6677 or 6700. Thanks and have a super day! Embassy Staff GATEWAY - The MU* Community
How to loose a player in 10 hours: Hi everyone, Join us this Saturday, as Rane (the Co-Goddess of Hogwarts Express) hosts a discussion "How to loose a player in 10 hours". It will take place at 5 pm EST. Ra, Coordinator Gateway, The MU* Community [link] telnet://connect.mu-gateway.ne t:6700 "Turn around, look at what you see
Gateway Roundtable Event - Villains and plots that worked... and those that REALLY didn't! ->Feb. 16, 2008: *Roundtable: Who doesn't love a good villain?* Some of the most exciting plots for players are those that include a menacing, evil, wicked villain (or villains), but these are some of the hardest plots to run because they can be so fraught with GMing pitfalls and disasters. There are some excellent resources to read about and similar veins that can
45 day reminder: Good news, everyone! This is your first reminder to log on to Gateway. Ambassadors and Co-Ambassadors are expected to log on every 60 days to maintain their Embassies. Have you read news emb ambs lately? We look forward to seeing you soon! Sincerely, Ra, Coordinator Gateway, The MU* Community [link]
Logo contest feedback: Good news, everyone! The entries for the logo contest are now in. All 4 submissions are up on our website at [link]. You may need to disable any ad-blocking software to view the 4 submissions. I have attempted to put them up in a fair, and impartial manner. File names have been changed to prevent any bias, and the images are stored
The Big Post: Good news, everyone! I have a few announcements for you today. 1. As some of you are aware, we started 2 Roundtable e-mail lists. One for admins, and one for head wiz's. They have small, but growing memberships. (They are listed at [link]) I'm looking for one or two
New Year Survey: Good news, everyone! We really want your feedback. So much that we've created a simple, 10 question survey that will collect your responses anonymously. Visit [link] and fill out the quick survey. It's completely anonymous, and will allow us to establish what needs improvement, what to add to GATEWAY, and so forth.
GATEWAY needs a logo!: Good news, everyone! I want to wish everyone who celebrates a Happy New Year! GATEWAY - The MU* Community needs a logo for our website. The one we have is ok, but it could be great! You get to help design it as part of a contest. The new logo should include the name of the game, and the address (either web, telnet or both.) Also it should match the colours of the

[edit] community.pennmush.org Feed

SQL Prepared Statements ... in MUSHcode?!

Softcode is ugly. So is SQL. But when you try and combine them, that's a real recipe for disaster. There are so many things to watch for when bridging the gap between mushcode and the database. You get tired pretty quickly of all the sqlescape()s you have to do, of losing where you are in a query because of too much interpolated softcode, escaping all the commas so that the sql() function doesn't think you're passing too many arguments, etc etc etc. The list goes on and on, and I'm sure you can think of more problems to add. This whole process has bugged enough people that it's started to become a fad to use a wrapper. That's what I'm here to describe and give you. With a proper wrapper, all your mushcode can stay mushcode, with no hint of SQL or sqlescape(), and all your SQL can stay SQL, with no hint of mushcode. I've always been a fan of bind variables, which unfortunately do not exist in PennMUSH. My wrapper creates as nicely an imitation as it can. What's a bind variable? It's when you create an SQL statement using question marks instead of data that might be dynamic. Here's an example from another language:

 query = conn.bindquery("INSERT INTO definitions (term, definition) VALUES (?,?)");

 query.execute("shoe", "An inanimate object, which nonetheless has a 'soul'.");

The equivalent mushcode:

 > think sql(INSERT INTO definitions (term\, definition) VALUES     ("[sqlescape(shoe)]"\,"[sqlescape(An inanimate object\, which nonetheless has a 'soul'.)]"))

Horrifying. The "Bind Variables" method is so much cleaner, and offers an additional method of making code easier: You don't need to know the SQL to use it. Once you've created a bind query, you can use it anytime, just passing it arguments. So I've attempted to recreate the awesomeness of bind variables in mushcode. The SQL Wrapper can be found here: http://walker.pennmush.org/code/sqlwrapper.txt - Yes, it's ugly code, but it's ugly so yours can be clean! So how is it used? You can write an SQL query in one attribute, and remain ignorant of the SQL in mushcode. All of the SQL queries are saved in the SQL` attribute tree. SQL`<name> Then, you can use one of three functions to work with that query. The most basic of this is named, simply enough, 'query': u(query,<queryname>,[<arg0>,<arg1>,...]) - This will execute the query kept in SQL`<queryname>, with each of the ?s replaced with the arguments. (First ? is arg0, second ? is arg1, etc). The arguments are sqlescaped, so you do NOT need to use sqlescape() in your own mushcode! Here's something using the above example:

 > @create Dictionary > @parent Dictionary = SQL Wrapper > @power Dictionary = sql_ok > &SQL`DEFINE Dictionary=INSERT INTO definitions (term, definition) VALUES (?,?) > @set Dictionary = !no_command > &CMD`DEFINE Dictionary=$+define *=*:@pemit %#=Word '%0' defined! [u(query,define,squish(%0),squish(%1))] > +define shoe=An inanimate object, which nonetheless has a 'soul'.)

Tada! Much cleaner, don't you agree? Because there is no mushcode or sql parsing happening of its arguments, you can feel safe when accepting user input! ... But here we have a problem. A successful insert/replace/delete/etc query returns an empty string, and an unsuccessful one returns #-1. Both evaluate to a boolean false, making it slightly more annoying to use. So, what can we do? Fairly simple. Most SQL libraries have the same problem, and provide two functions: 'query' returns query results, and 'update' returns number of rows affected, or a false value on failure. So we provide a wrapper: u(update,...) that returns a 1 on success, or the query's #-1 SQL ERROR: result on failure. u(update,<queryname>,[<arg0>,...]) - Identical to query, but it will return a 1 if the query ever returns an empty string.

 > think u(dictionary/update,define,shoulder,Something on which is placed a burden) 1 > think u(dictionary/update,define,shoe,Something that goes on feet) #-1 SQL ERROR: Duplicate entry 'shoe' for key 1

And to change our cmd`define to use it:

 > &CMD`DEFINE dictionary=$+define *=*:@pemit %#=if(setr(0,u(update,define,%0,%1)),Word '%0' defined!,Error: %q0)

So now we have clean, useful ways to both do a standard sql query, and an update query that we can easily check the result of. Now - We have mapsql(), which is a very handy, mush-like way to deal with results from an SQL query. Unfortunately, mapsql() doesn't use bind variables either, so we had to make mapquery! Here's a brief intro: u(mapquery,<[obj/]attr>,<queryname>,[<arg0>,...]) - will do what we need, with a default output separator of %r.

 > &SQL`SEARCH Dictionary=SELECT term, definition FROM definitions WHERE term LIKE ? ORDER BY term > &MAPLINE Dictionary = align(>10 40,%1,%2) > think u(Dictionary/mapquery,mapline,search,shoe)       shoe An inanimate object, which nonetheless            has a 'soul'.

Now we make this into a command, adding a '%' (The SQL version of '*' for glob matching) to the end of it:

 > &CMD`SEARCH dictionary=$+search *:@pemit %#=Definitions found:%r[u(mapquery,mapline,search,%0\%)] > +define shopkeep = Somebody who wants money for their stuff. > +search sho Definitions found:             shoe An inanimate object, which nonetheless              has a 'soul'.   shopkeep Somebody who wants money for their                 stuff.                                     shoulder Something on which is placed a burden.

So, tada! We now have 3 functions that we can use quite easily with bind variables: 'query', 'update', and 'mapquery'. Here's the full documentation: SQL`<name> - A query definition. The value of the attribute is an SQL query that matches one of two formats:
1) Position-based bind variables: SQL queries that use a ? in place of non-hardcoded variables.
2) Number-based bind variables: SQL queries that use ?<0> through ?<7> for bind variable position. SQL-Platform specific queries can be created by using SQL`name`<platform>. platform is the value of config(sql_platform). If it exists, it will be used instead of SQL`name. ?s can be prefixed by _ to tell the parser to turn MUSH-style globs into SQL-style globs, as per GLOB2LIKE below. ?s prefixed by a @ tell the parser that that argument is a space-separated list intended to be turned into an SQL Array. e.g, it turns '1 2 3' into '("1", "2", "3")'. (Remember, in SQL, "1" is the same as 1 when it works with numbers.) This is useful for "SELECT * FROM foo WHERE fooid IN @?" queries. U(QUERY,<name>[:<rowsep>[:<colsep>]][,<args>]) - Perform a query that returns results, with result rows separated by <rowsep>, cols by <colsep> (Both a space by default). Args are mapped onto the SQL query in SQL`<name>, using either methods 1 or 2 above. U(UPDATE,<name>[,<args>]) - Identical to u(query), but designed for queries that perform updates - If the result string is empty, u(update) assumes success, and returns 1. U(MAPSQL,<attrname>[:<rowsep>[:<dofieldnames>]],<name>[,<args>]) - Performs an SQL query, mapping <args> to its bind variables, using either bind method. Result rows are passed to <attrname> as %1-%9, with row number as %0. (Much like mapsql()). <rowsep> defaults to %r, and <dofieldnames> makes the first call to <attrname> have a rownum of 0 and %1-%9 are the names of the columns. One helper function: U(GLOB2SQL) - This turns a Mush glob pattern (with *s and ?s) into a glob pattern fit for SQL: * -> "%" and "?" -> "_". This can be automatically applied to your bind variable if you prefix the ? with a _. (e.g: _?) - It still does an sqlescape(), so your query is safe when you use _?. And here's the dictionary, if you'd like it: @create Dictionary @link Dictionary = #0 @parent Dictionary=#2414 @power Dictionary = SQL_OK @describe Dictionary = A simple SQL-based Dictionary lies here. You can search for definitions by using "+search <term>", and you can add new ones by using "+define <term>=<definition>". &CREATE_TABLE Dictionary=CREATE TABLE definitions (term VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (term), definitions MEDIUMTEXT NOT NULL) &CMD Dictionary=Command tree. &CMD`DEFINE Dictionary=$+define *=*:@pemit %#=if(setr(0,u(update,define,squish(%0),squish(%1))),Word '[squish(%0)]' defined!,Error: %q0) &CMD`SEARCH Dictionary=$+search *:@pemit %#=Definitions found:%r[u(mapquery,mapline,search,%0\%)] &MAPLINE Dictionary=align(>10 40,%1,%2) &SQL Dictionary=SQL Bind Query Tree &SQL`DEFINE Dictionary=INSERT INTO definitions (term, definition) VALUES (?,?) &SQL`SEARCH Dictionary=SELECT term, definition FROM definitions WHERE term LIKE ? @@ If you want all +define commands to succeed, change "INSERT INTO" to "REPLACE INTO"

Seeking help with study on MUSHes and players

Dear MUSH players and game admins, I am conducting a research study on the connections between
MUSHes and MUSH players, and I invite you (and the players
of your MUSH(s)) to participate. The survey is at http://javelin.pennmush.org/survey/ and here is more information: Alan Schwartz, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at
Chicago (and known around MUSHes as Javelin, former PennMUSH developer),
is seeking players to participate in an 5-minute anonymous survey
as part of a study of the interconnections between MUSHes and MUSH
players. This project has been determined to be exempt from review by
the UIC Institutional Review Board. The survey will ask you to indicate which of a list of MUSHes you
currently play or staff on, as well as a few optional demographic
questions. You will not be asked to provide your name. Responses to
the survey will be used to better understand how MUSH are connected by
players in common and how players are connected by MUSHes in common. To participate in this project, visit: http://javelin.pennmush.org/survey/ For further questions, you may contact Alan via email at alansz@uic.edu
or javelin@pennmush.org. Thanks for your help!

Tinytalk Episode 021: Interview with Shawn McCann

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Interview with Shawn McCann, North America's first Immersive Learning/Gaming Librarian

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Tinytalk Episode 020: Is MUSHing dead?

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Is MUSHing dead?

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Music for this episode

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Startup Presentation: Empire MUSH (new date: Apr 12, 2pm CDT)

On Sunday, ~~April 5~~ April 12, at 2 PM server time (CDT), in Omphalos Park on M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201), Tyr will announce and discuss the game he's been working on, tentatively titled 'The Empire MUSH.' Set in 11th-century Thuringia, Germany, the game is an attempt at marrying history and fantasy in a work of interactive fiction. Topics covered will include the reasoning behind the setting and theme, some information on the setting itself (a broad overview), and a postmortem on the course of development so far. The presentation is expected to last about 90 minutes; 30 minutes for the presentation itself, and 60 for discussion afterward. This may be longer or shorter depending on audience participation and interest. This presentation is part of the M*U*S*H Architect-in-Residence program.

Tinytalk Episode 019: Halting State

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Halting State and point of view

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Halting State, by Charles Stross
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, by Tom Robbins
The 2008 Hugo award nominees
PMOG, the passively multiplayer online game
Philippe Mangold's Voyage dans l'Ã©ther album

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Working picnic 6: Ender 'Player Relations: Being a Benevolent Dictator'

This Sunday's working picnic at M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201) will be presented by Ender. The subject is 'Player Relations: Being a Benevolent Dictator' It should be interesting and thought-provoking so do come along. There's a bit of an issue with daytime savings time. The US has changed and the UK hasn't, but I'm going to stick with GMT time until the end of the month so this picnic will be held at: 10:30pm GMT
5:30pm Chicago (MUSHtime) Hope everyone can come along :) Also - I'm on a big hunt for more speakers. If you or a friend has something to say about MUSHing and a free Sunday, please do talk to me. I've got lots of spaces!

Tinytalk Episode 018: Good to Great for MUSH

Click here to download this episode:
Click here to subscribe to the podcast:
Tinytalk is a podcast about MUSHes and other text-based virtual worlds, and the players who play them. In this episode:

[00:00] Intro
[01:00] Good to Great for MUSH
[12:35] News and Notes

Links to stuff mentioned in this episode:

Tinytalk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License .

Managing your MUSH Working Picnic #4 with Javelin!

The working picnic series, Managing Your MUSH continues at M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201) on Sunday 2nd March. Excitingly, our guest speaker for this week is Javelin who will be talking on 'Good to Great for MUSH' and everyone is welcome. Tell all your friends and pack your picnic hamper! Following the talk, there will be plenty of time for discussion. These events are proving very popular with some fascinating discussions. The talk will take place in Linden Grove at 4:30pm MUSHTime (Chicago)/10:30pm GMT. We're still looking for speakers for future events so if you'd like to talk on any aspect of MUSH management, please get in contact with Elvira!

Sunday working picnic #3 - ' Book-Based MU*s. From Choosing a Theme to Managing Player Expectations' with Nymeria

The 'Managing your MUSH' working picnic series goes from strength to strength. Following Impster's superb presentation and discussion last week and a big turn-out, this week's guest speaker is Nymeria who will be talking on the subject of MUSH themes and player expectations. It will be held in Linden Grove at M*U*S*H (mush.pennmush.org 4201) on Sunday 22nd February at 4:30pm MUSHtime (Chicago)/10:30pm GMT. Do come along, the talks are usually short and interesting and there's plenty of time for discussion. Thanks to all who have been supporting these talks. We have a line-up of great speakers still to come. Bring your own beer/sandwiches/cakes! And if you want to speak at a future event, do get in touch with me!

[edit] Wikia's Gaming Blog Feed

The Two Towers: Name: The Two Towers (T2T) Website: http://t2tmud.org Address: telnet://t2tmud.org:9999 The Two Towers MUD is a free Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game set entirely within Tolkien’s world of Middle-Earth. We have extensively re-created the lands of Middle-Earth in a rich text environment, from Mithlond to Mordor and the lands of Harad beyond. With over 100,000 rooms and always growing, The [...]
Kings Quest and Space Quest: The Wikia Gaming blog welcomes two new gaming wikis. The Space Quest Omnipedia and King’s Quest Omnipedia. The wikis cover two Sierra Online game series from the golden era of adventure games, as well as related fan-created games. You can read more about the games at Space Quest and King’s Quest.
Aelitiria Dawnsinger: A snippet from the Weekly Featured Article on the Earthen Ring Wiki: A young sin’doeri, Aelitiria’s face is sharp and sleek, with dark green glowing eyes, prominent cheek bones, pert nose and lips a slightly darker shade then her skin without lip rouge. She has an unusual brush of freckles on the light tan coloured [...]
Role players of Final Fantasy: Final Fantasy is a popular series of role-playing games produced by Square Enix (originally Square Co., Ltd.), and is reportedly the most widely distributed game series of all time. At Final Fantasy Wikia wiki which anyone can freely edit, we are collaborating with each other to build the largest up-dated database of everything related [...]
Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls: Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls is a compilation of the first two games in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan under the title Final Fantasy I + II Advance. Graphically, it is very similar to the previously released enhanced remakes of both games for the WonderSwan Color. Final Fantasy [...]
Greetings from SWGames: The Star Wars Games Wiki is a wiki to inform gamers and the general public about the various aspects and subtleties of all the games in the Star Wars franchise, from Knights of the Old Republic to LEGO Star Wars. Come visit us if you are a Star Wars fan!
Polymerization: A snippet from Yu-Gi-Oh! Wikia’s Card Lore for Polymerization (Spell Card): Fusion Material Monsters that are listed by a Fusion Monster Card from your hand or your side of the field to the Graveyard, and Special Summon the Fusion Monster from your Fusion Deck.
Triple Triad: The Triple Triad is a popular card game in Final Fantasy VIII. Much like Tetra Master from Final Fantasy IX, the cards of the Triple Triad depict different monsters who have different stats. It is a side quest and you do not need to play cards to beat the game, however all the cards obtained [...]
Testing Greetings from AliceSoftWiki: The AliceSoftWiki is a wiki to document and help with all aspect of every AliceSoft game, from Rance to Beat Blades Haruka. Come visit us if you are an AliceSoft fan!
Kings Quest and Space Quest: The Wikia Gaming blog welcomes two new gaming wikis. The Space Quest Omnipedia and King’s Quest Omnipedia. The wikis cover two Sierra Online game series from the golden era of adventure games, as well as related fan-created games. You can read more about the games at Space Quest and King’s Quest.

[edit] Gamasutra News Feed

Big Fish CSO: 'Casual' And 'Hardcore' Insufficient To Define Market

During the Casual Connect conference in Seattle, web-oriented game developer and distributor Big Fish Games released results of its research project into the spending and playing habits of so-called hardcore and casual gamers. Conducted with market research firm NPD, the study surveyed 2,611 gamers and determined that lines between casual and hardcore are blurry at best, and gamer demographics are broader than conventional thinking has held. As Big Fish CSO Paul Thelen stated during a ...

Unangst: GFW Live Has Full Game Download Plans 'On The Roadmap'

Talking to Gamasutra during GameFest in Seattle, Microsoft's Kevin Unangst has been discussing the Games For Windows Live marketplace service for DLC later this year, revealing that full game downloads - potentially making the PC-based service into a Steam competitor - are also "definitely on the roadmap". Gamasutra discussed the new GameFest announcement with Unangst, that Microsoft is removing all subscription fees from Games for Windows Live multiplayer services, and that the related Marketplace application ...

Best Of WorldsInMotion: From Zynga to MTV House

Every week, we feature the top stories from the surging online/virtual world space from Gamasutra sister site WorldsInMotion.biz. This week's notable items in the space include Zynga securing $29 million and acquiring YoVille, MTV UK launching MTV House, and our in-depth tour of Mattel MMO Barbie Girls Zynga Secures $29M In Series B, Acquires YoVille "Social gaming service Zynga has announced that it has completed a $29 million Series B round of financing lead by ...

GameFest: How Halo 3's 'Lots And Lots Of Sparks' Got Made

During Microsoft's GameFest 2008 developer event in Seattle, Gamasutra attended a lecture given by Bungie lead effects artist Steve Scott. Scott's talk spoke in-depth on the intricacies of the effect artist's field - a relatively emerging profession in games - and shared some tales from the development of Bungie's Halo 3. A Discrete Creative Discipline "Effects have evolved into a discrete creative discipline," Scott pointed out. "Treat it as such." Far from being a side ...

Rhino To Partner With Music Video Games Portal

Music Video Games, the recently founded casual portal focusing on creating "proprietary music beat matching games" has announced its first partnership with Warner Music division Rhino Entertainment, who will both license its own music for the site as well as advise the site on future artists. No details on the actual games the site will produce have yet been released, as the company says its "mechanics are so different from conventional beat-matching games" that it ...

Feature: 'Practical Fluid Dynamics: Part 2'

Following up his popular recent article, Neversoft co-founder Mick West explains the technical details - including source code - of creating dynamic fluid systems such as smoke for video games. West suggests that programmers think of pressure at a particular node as being the difference in density between a cell and its neighbors -- the water pressure will be the same throughout the density field since it is, for the most part, incompressible: "If we ...

GCG's Game Design Challenge: Player Aid

GameCareerGuide has just posted the latest round of its Game Design Challenge, inspired this week by Ian Schreiber. The challenge is to design a "player aid" for the board game Risk. The player aid should be a kind of quick reference that gives a brief summary of the rules. The idea is that new players, upon having read the game rules in full once, now have a quick cheat sheet that they can refer to ...

Nintendo, FujiFilm Offer Photo Printing, Business Cards Through Wii Channel

Nintendo has partnered with FujiFilm to launch the Digital Camera Print Channel, a new service for Japanese Wii consoles that allows users to order prints of their online photos, as well as business cards featuring a user's Mii avatar. Users can transfer photos to the console from digital cameras and cell phones, and design the products using template sets provided in the new channel, placing orders directly through the new interface. The current list of ...

New York Law Mandates Game Violence Study, Parental Lockout, Ratings

As part of a wider package of bills, New York Governor David Paterson has signed into law one that will see the state putting together a study on game violence and its effect on minors, as well as provisions for parental lockouts and game ratings. The new laws are part of a package of three dozen bills meant to "focus on public safety and protecting the rights of New York residents," and also include residential ...

ESA: E3 To Return In 2009

Despite high profile criticism from a number of publishing execs, E3 organizer the ESA has announced that the show will return in 2009, though the organization has yet to announced what changes might be made in response to the latest industry reception. Shortly after the close of E3, executives like Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello and Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc were quoted as disagreeing with the format of the 2008 show, with Riccitiello ...

[edit] Ten Ton Hammer Feed

Guilded - Comic Con: Welcome to the 802nd Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part [...]
What Makes Good Sense?: Welcome to the 801st Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
Viva Lost Wages: Welcome to the 800th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part [...]
Unloadingâ¦: Welcome to the 799th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part [...]
PvPing All Over Your Shoe: Welcome to the 798th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
Group Hug: Welcome to the 797th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
Ten Ton Warhammer: Welcome to the 796th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
10 Million Enter Black Temple: Welcome to the 795th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
Battlegrounded: Welcome to the 794th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part of Ten [...]
You Want to Win What?: Welcome to the 794th Edition of Loading… If you aren’t reading this in your e-mail, you could be. Sign up. Are you looking for gaming news? Look no further for all of the headlines. General industry news, right down to game specific and forum thread feeds are all yours as part [...]

[edit] The Escapist Feed

Fragging in the (Un)Lucky Country: "While the rest of the world explores the competitive side of the internet, however, Australia lags behind, listening for results via dial-up. Forget professional gaming - people struggle to get quality broadband. If you are lucky enough to find a decent service, you'd better hope it holds up during peak hours for your online fragging fix. And don't get me started on those who live in the bush."
Not Just Another Pretty Face(plate): "Xbox 360 owners can personalize their consoles by swapping out the removable plate that snaps on to the front of the unit. You can find faceplates featuring art from games like Assassin's Creed or a simulated wood grain finish quite easily online or in retails stores. Other, more exotic designs are available from Japanese sellers. True collectors lust after the limited edition faceplates that PR firms hand out at industry events such as E3 - they often go for big bucks on auction sites like eBay. But why settle for something ordinary or pay a fortune for a limited edition model when you pay a pittance for something that's truly one of a kind?"
The Dealer Doesn't Play: "I thought it would be different. We had an Organized Play guy at White Wolf Game Studio whose job consisted, in part, of arranging tournament events all over the world for the Vampire collectible card game. He'd be gone for weeks at a time, living off his per diem, refereeing official tournaments with cash prizes and drinking scotch instead of eating food. He came back one time with a decorative mirror from Romania, painted with a vampire theme as I recall, and a T-shirt that said 'Never Leave Hungary.' That's what I thought it would be like to play games for money."
Button-Mashing Monkeys: "Testing unreleased games is both fascinating and mind-numbingly boring." "For some, it's the ultimate dream job. Many aspiring game developers see testing as a way to get a foot in the door, a stepping stone on the career path to a 'real' game development position. But others have a much more dismal view of game testing, envisioning it as little more than a room full of button-mashing monkeys. Even so, people continue to flock toward the game testing labs at Nintendo of America (NOA) and Microsoft Game Studios (MGS), eager to live their own small part of the game development dream."
A Site To Call My Own: "Despite our persistent obscurity, we have managed to accomplish our primary goal of GamersWithJobs.com, which is simply to perpetrate an excuse for refusing to grow up and stop playing these silly games. 'Look,' we say to our uncommonly patient wives, 'we have literally tens of people who want to know what we think!' "This is, of course a lie."
Stars and Squares: "Whatever you do, don't click." "That's the mistake most players make upon first loading up The Marriage, the first widely released artgame by Rod Humble. In Humble's minimalist, abstract exploration of relationship dynamics, even the seemingly innocuous act of clicking the left mouse button forcibly restarts the game. As is the case with so many aspects of Humble's games, the 'don't click' rule first causes irritation, then confusion and, finally, acceptance (probably followed by a second, much more subtle confusion)."
Like a Kid Again: "I'd spend hours daydreaming - drawing and writing stories about imaginary creatures and worlds I invented out of thin air. I couldn't take a breath without some absurd creation popping into my mind, begging to be smudged into life via crayons and a piece of paper. At the same time, like many boys, I discovered an ability to turn any appropriately shaped piece of wood, kitchen utensil or cardboard tube into an imaginary gun. I couldn't walk through a forest without mentally reconfiguring at least one branch into a laser rifle I could use to destroy some evil alien monster or, more often, my younger brother."
Piracy and the Underground Economy: "I want to introduce you to an entirely different perspective: Piracy supports an underground economy and the livelihoods of thousands of people in Asia, especially in countries where most people live below the poverty line. This underground exists primarily because its participants cannot afford the exorbitant prices charged by game publishers. It's a point of view that isn't often raised in American or 'industrialized' media, but it's easy to miss when you aren't surrounded by piracy on a daily basis."
Click Here for Hot Man Love!: "Sex has remained generally unchanged since cavemen were humping in, well, caves. (They apparently enjoyed it.) Up until about 20 years ago, sexual encounters were generally between two (or more) people in a private setting. Then the internet came, and the floodgates opened. With the wide availability of advice, diagrams, cell phones and instant messenger programs, our ideas about sex have become more fluid than ever. We no longer need to suppress our passions, fetishes or dirty thoughts; we now have plenty of outlets to nurture and share them with others."
A Three-Year History of Gaming: "After three years, you're still one year shy of a college degree, two years shy of being able to apply for U.S. citizenship, and 70 years from seeing that saguaro cactus you clipped while driving drunk in the desert fully re-grow its arm. Three years is nothing. "Then again, three years can be an eternity. Three years is more than half a lifetime for a game console, and twice a lifetime for most games. For gaming celebrities, it could be a career. On the internet, it's an epoch."
The Age of the World-Builders: "I had just entered the world of Morrowind. I had enough problems without this guy in my face, whining about his stupid ring. One well-aimed arrow shot later, and I found myself squatting in his secluded Seyda Neen cottage. But it wasn't just somewhere to keep my spare weapons and armor. I found myself decorating. I kept the place clean. It was my home. "That's when it really hit me: This wasn't just some level in a game. This was my vacation home in a digital environment."
Ten Things That Don't Suck About the Game Industry: "One of the International Game Developers Association's many roles is to deal with all the crap that's going on in the game development community, from defending developers' right to creative expression to pushing studios for better work-life balance. ... But another aspect of my job, one that I often neglect, is to be an industry evangelist - to promote all that's cool and wonderful about games and game development."
Love Sucks and Then You Evolve: "I didn't know what to expect from my brief affair with television, but I knew it wouldn't all be long walks on the beach and playing kissy-face. For a start, I've known television my whole life. I've suckled the great glass teat since I was a toddler, and TV has entertained - or at least occupied - many hours since. Climbing into bed with the boob tube sounded a little incestuous."
The Crystal Ball: "'The future of gaming'? Crap! Don't you need to be an analyst to have enough balls to write about the future of the medium? Either way, I gathered myself and wrote back that I'd do it, knowing full well that ingrained into my DNA is the easily called-upon, opinionated, stubborn Irish ego that would enable me to make bold predictions about a subject dear to my heart. Without further ado, I give you the death pool."
The Force is Strong in This One: "My parents' generation was informed by great and powerful things. By the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, the deaths of John Kennedy, his brother Robert and Martin Luther King. Before them, my grandparents were raised on dirt, suffering through the Great Depression with a grim determination to do it better for their kids. Me? I grew up making six-inch-tall replicas of Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher have sex in the backseat of a toy space ship. Now I write about games for a living. Perhaps a little struggling is good for the soul. If I have children, they'll eat dirt."

[edit] Lost Souls Public Changelog Feed

Updated Battlerager Weapon: Bloodwake

#	3851
Type	content revision
By	Ancient
When	Jul 17 2008 5:17 PM
Description	Updated Battlerager Artifact: Bloodwake, to make it much more interesting fo

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