Went to the “breaking in” seminar, which was the exact same format and in the same place as the one I went to two years ago. Still don’t have a job, but then neither do some of the panelists from two years ago.

Still going to the AGD panel, though the panel lineup has changed, including a Special Mystery Guest, complete with silhouette and big question mark. It’s likely that my report on the matter won’t appear on this site, either … though I’ll point it out from here.

Tomorrow I’ll be going back to Austin for the latest ACC lecture, featuring Rich Vogel probably saying the same stuff about MMO/MMP development I’ve heard him say before (but it’s always good listening.) And then I’ll be back on Saturday to maybe stick my head in at Staple and wish Balseraph Happy Back From France with a bunch of his friends whom I don’t know. Many are apparently burlesque dancers and strippers. (No, I’m not kidding, and no I don’t really know the difference.)

If you don’t know why I want to move to Austin by now, just check the price at the pump.

Edit: Not all the speakers listed below are on the panel anymore. Check the first link for who is.

Just noticed the page for the next Austin Game Developers meeting. The panel “Games: the bastard children of popular media” includes a few familiar names: Mike McShaffry and Susan O’Connor, whom we’ve already read about here; Allen Varney, whose article about the rise and fall of Origin got a lot of attention not long ago; Harvey Smith, who’s now at Midway Austin, and …

MIKE WILSON. Former CEO of Gathering of Developers and now head of his own film company.

For why this is going to be an awesome panel (and note the subject,) see below:
Continue reading Next AGD panel…

Hooray for Google translation of what I think is a positive review:

Bible celebrations readers know naturally, which was again-aroused Lazarus of the legend after of the dead ones. More appropriate one could not have designated the project, finally “Ultima V” practically already decayed and might even on the non removable disks of the most hardsimmered fans in peace rest. Completely clearly that the new edition with optics up-to-date must come therefore. The developers decided in such a way for the “Dungeon Siege” engine, in order the world of the famous Avatars in the new gloss entsehen to leave.

Fuck yeah.

It’s no secret that he and I talk, but it’s his business, not mine. I prefer not to speculate, in part because I know I will know eventually. But I seriously doubt there’s any circumstance where I’d tell anyone before Lum wanted people to know.

I suspect that wherever he’s going, it’s been in the works for a while. It’d have to be; no one gets hired in games without some sit-down. But I doubt he’s done any “work” yet for a new project if he has yet to move from where he lives to where he’s going.

Patience. The world’s still turning. It’s not like we won’t hear from him again.

As Tibby said, it’s not great, but it’s fair. We’re expecting more magazine reviews to trickle in, including from European mags, all without any amount of intentional promotion.

What he failed to mention is 2.5/5 is the same rating that CGW gave Ultima IX. Some might shy away from such a factoid, but I also point out that Ultima Online: Third Dawn (the 3D expansion) got 1.5/5.

I think people got paid for making those games.

Thanks to Lum (and really, thanks to Abalieno, who is hopefully not as scary as he looks,) I now know that Jeff Freeman has nuked his blog.
Continue reading A strange game….

Our first chat was a hit, so we’re going to be doing them every week now. This time, she did the archiving.

It’s about fear. Sort of.

Lazarus has a large contingent of European fans (it’s about half, near as I can tell) and a disproportionate number of Finnish fans, i.e., fans from Finland. One of them posted that the Finnish game magazine, Pelit, gave Lazarus 90/100 in the latest issue.

By contrast, Kingmaker, an official module for Neverwinter Nights, got 77/100.

UPDATE: Fop, our Finnish team member, posted scans of the pages:
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