We posted an article one month ago that invited readers to do a little thought exercise. Here's what we said: "On the 5th of November we're going to post an article or two about video games, gadgets, technology, and general geekness ... the things about video gaming and technology that ought not be forgotten."

So here's our list of some video gaming and technology moments worth remembering. Hope this gets you thinking (and feeling nostalgic too!). And we look forward to your comments (and arguments). What do you remember and wish that the world will never forget?

Today is October 5. That means that November 5, Guy Fawkes Night, is one month away.

While we don't celebrate this day in the US (it's not even a public holiday in the United Kingdom - it's only a yearly celebration), many of us know of this day thanks to the DC Comics / Vertigo graphic novel (comic book) series V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd and its movie adaptation (with inimitable performances by Natalie Portman as Evey and Hugo Weaving as V).

Still, any "holiday" that gives people an excuse to light fireworks and go door-to-door begging for spare change sounds like something worth celebrating. So we at QJ.NET invite you to get into the spirit of things to remember, remember the 5th of November.

On the 5th of November we're going to post an article or two about video games, gadgets, technology, and general geekness - what moves us and affects us and touches us, and all the things about video gaming and technology that ought not be forgotten. Pretty much like the QuickJump QuickList articles in our Opinions & Analysis section at the front page and the other articles in the Opinions & Analysis sections of our many video game, science, and gadget blogs.

We invite you to plan ahead and consider what you want to remember on that day - because our articles obviously can't be the final word - that's what comments and the QJ.NET Forums are for. (Besides, now that we've turned off anonymous comments - and now that comments are smarter, funnier, and more meaningful - you have a good venue to share your reactions.)

We look forward to your thoughts. See you on the 5th of November.

 

This is the second part of QJ.NET's Alter Ego interview (you can read the first part here). We had to split it, because there were two people answering our questions about this concept book / art project / MMORPG documentary. That meant twice the fascinating details and twice the thought-provoking answers.

So here are Robbie Cooper (project originator and photographer) and Tracy Spaight (project writer / researcher) of Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators as they tell us more about their journey to create this book.

   

Here's a sneak peek (click on the Full Article link below to read the full interview):

Tracy Spaight: In his "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman penned the wonderful verse "I am large, I contain multitudes." The same could be said for the gaming community.

Tracy Spaight: In Asia, few people were willing to talk candidly about what their avatar meant to them, or to discuss what they found so compelling about life in virtual worlds. Many didn't want to be photographed because they feared their parents, teachers, or colleagues would see them and disapprove.

Click on the Full Article link below to read the full interview. And to all gamers, you princes and paupers, you superheroes and spaghetti monsters, look for Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators in bookstores - and museums - near you. For more information, go to www.alteregobook.com.



Buy: [Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators]

 

What is Alter Ego? MTV, CNN, The New York Times, and various MMORPG sites have introduced us to the concept: Alter Ego is an intriguing concept book presenting the phenomenon of the contemporary avatar - the virtual characters we gamers create to play online.

In Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators, you see pictures of gamers from all over the world (including leading figures in the gaming world) alongside their avatars. Add to that a short and interesting biography, and you have a visual testimony of who and what we are as gamers.

Now QJ.NET takes a closer look at the book: from its successful launch and its reception, and going back to its creative roots. We also get a glimpse into the minds and visions of Robbie Cooper (the project originator and photographer) and Tracy Spaight (the project writer / researcher).

Here's a sneak peek (click on the Full Article link below to read the full interview):

Tracy Spaight: The images and stories that make up Alter Ego are easy for people to relate to, even if they've never logged into Second Life or EverQuest. They speak to the modern condition.

Robbie Cooper: I met one person online, for example, who told me she played these games because she had been facially disfigured in car crash. She refused to be photographed. I bet there are thousands of more stories out there that we never came across.

"I used to be a satanic priest,
but then I got a girlfriend."

Read the full interview by clicking on the Full Article link below. There's also a second part because this interview is extra-long: go to QJ.NET interview- Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators (Part 2).


Buy: [Alter Ego: Avatars and their Creators]

Game Informer Magazine has three images of the Video Games Live (VGL) concert that closed the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2007 at San Fransisco. VGL is a concert tour that features music from video games, and each concert is a treat: the music is combined with video presentations, light and laser effects, and other special effects.

Having a VGL concert at the GDC made perfect sense, and the GDC concert was a star-studded one (we earlier published a list of all the composers and artists at the GDC VGL).

VGL: a multimedia concert. Like any Video Games Live concert, the music was amazing. There was an orchestra and a 16-member choir conducted by game composer Jack Wall (Myst, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire). There was a screen that showed synchronized video footage. Audience members were brought up to play Space Invaders and Frogger on the big screen - the orchestra provided live music (complete with tempo changes!).

As usual, during the Metal Gear Solid portion of the program, an actor dressed as a guard walked onto the stage - and the infamous alert exclamation mark (!) appeared over his head - much to the amusement of the audience (the poor guard didn't notice a large box sneaking past him). (An earlier QJ.NET article on VGL concert dates has a video of a similar scene from another concert.)

Other musical highlights included "Baba Yetu" from Civilization IV, the explosive "Liberi Fatali" from Final Fantasy VIII, and the World of Warcraft suite - all three masterpieces got huge reactions from the audience.

A night of video game music artists. As reported earlier, there were also performances by LucasArts composers Peter McConnell, Michael Land, and Clint Bajakian. "VertexGuy" powered the stirring electric guitar anthems of Contra and the Halo 3 grand finale. The "Video Game Pianist" was also there to play Dig Dug and Pac-Man music on the piano.

Super Mario and Zelda composer Koji Kondo (who received a lifetime achievement award at the GDC earlier in the week) played a piano solo of music from Super Mario Bros. (the audience went wild, taking out their Nintendo DS units and mobile phones to wave them in the air as lights).

Let the world know: video games are a legitimate art form. Having the VGL grace the GDC with its presence is a statement to the industry and to industry-watchers and critics. "I think what tonight helps prove is how legitimate video games have become as an art form," said Tommy Tallarico, a game composer and the co-creator of VGL.

  

Issue 2 of PCGZine is now out. It has an exclusive Lord of the Rings Online preview, an exclusive Enemy Territory: Quake Wars interview, and lots more (including a review of Burning Crusade). And there's more good news: Cranberry Publishing Ltd. is pleased to announce that the magazine is now to be published every month.

Publishing Director Dave Taylor said, "The response to the first issue has been incredible, and so we're pleased to confirm that the title will now be published monthly, bringing more of the writing and interactive content that the readers have asked for."

And there's a clincher: Issue 2 has a special preview of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that includes the chance for readers to win one of 50 beta keys to play the game before their friends.

Their press release ended with some reminders. PCGZine is a Gamerzine published in PDF format, so you'll need a copy of the free Adobe Reader version 6 or above. Why version 6? Because each Gamerzine (like 360Zine or their PES6 Fanzine) includes dozens of pages of articles that have been enhanced with embedded multimedia.

There's a glitch in the Matrix because history keeps repeating itself. "World of Warcraft gives a boost to the sales figures of Vivendi SA is a video game developer; formerly known as Vivendi Universal">Vivendi Games," the headlines say. Way back in July of 2006 we said the same thing. For those of you who don't know, Vivendi Games is the publisher of Warcraft; Blizzard Entertainment is the developer (it's owned by Vivendi).

World of Warcraft sold almost a million copies in 2006, while the Burning Crusade expansion pack sold 2.4 million copies on its first day (it was launched earlier this month). If you recall, the WoW user base passed the 8 million mark.

Scarface: The World Is Yours was another title that helped the publisher bring home the bacon.

The game has been released for the PC, PS2, and Xbox. If the buzz that it's coming to the Wii comes true, that should only help sales even more.

We couldn't help but chuckle in agreement at what dop-l (Unregisted) said to the other commenters in "Scarface on Wii" article:

I hATE THE CONTRADICTIONS, ON ONE HAND EVERYONE IS LIKE OH NINTENDO'S KIDDY IMAGE. SO NINTENDO GOES THRU THE TROUBLE OF GETTING MATURE CONTENT ON THE Wii BY GET'N GODFATHER, DRIVER PARALLEL LINES, SCARFACE, AND WORKING ON GTA AND EVERYONE *****ES ABOUT IT. I SAY GOOD JOB NINTENDO FOR BROADINING YOUR HORIZONS AND MAKING SURE THAT THE Wii HAS SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY. KUDOS!!!

And like ssj3fox said, "it's good to see support." Well, Vivendi owns Blizzard, Sierra Entertainment, Massive Entertainment, Radical Entertainment, High Moon Studios, and Swordfish Studios. We hope Scarface is just the start, and if the Wii community has a positive reaction to Vivendi's Scarface, we hope we'll see more Vivendi games on the Wii in the future.

Vivendi reported a revenue growth of 25% from 2005 to 2006. This year should be even better.

 

RPG fans, gather round. We're going to nitpick a topic to death. (And you know nitpicking is one of RPG fans' favorite hobbies.)

Paradox #1: monsters that don't drop loot. This article was spawned by an article over at WOW Insider that asked why is it when you have a mission to collect ogre brains, few ogres actually drop brains. The world of Blizzard's World of Warcraft is full of liverless boars, brainless ogres, and bloodless orcs.

Paradox #2: monsters drop nonsense loot. Remember how dragons in the first Neverwinter Nights dropped their blood in handy little bottles (complete with decorative covers)?

(Warrior: And with this last arrow I kill you. Dragon: Hang on a sec. Let me bottle up my blood first. You got a needle and tube handy?)

RPG fans have gotten used to the fact that every creature (from blind cave fish to rabid rodents to sea turtles lazing on a beach) carry gold in little bags and elixirs in standard-sized bottle. Some animals even drop swords!

And we spend so much energy to defend our favorite RPG and explain why this is the case, when we could be spending that energy writing feedback to our favorite developer to tell them to put more thought and design into their next RPG.

Is loot-dropping realism too much to ask? "It's a game; it's not supposed to be realistic!" exclaim the echoes. Really? Then what's with the effort to make good scenery, characters that look alive, and amazing storylines that pull you into the story so you'll forget that "it's just a game"? By the way, if you follow those backlinks, you'll see that many new RPG games have evolved to take advantage of new technology, so maybe it's time to universally change the way item drops are done in other "traditional" RPGs?

We have a few ideas to deal with the drop rate paradoxes. [This is just the short version of this article. Click on the "Full Article" below to Jump to the "Full Article."]

Solution #1: bring in hunter skills. We propose incorporating automatic hunter skill parameters in RPGs. [More about this solution in the Full Article.]

Solution #2: bring in battle finesse. Your character is a better fighter at higher levels, right? So you aim and attack better. So there should be less battle damage done to loot. Therefore, the higher the level of your character, the higher the chances of getting dropped loot. Besides, you need more loot at higher levels because weapons and armor is more expensive, right?

And that's all for now. We could keep nitpicking more things and throwing out more ideas - and there are a lot more RPGs we could mention for their good points and bad points (Dungeon Siege Throne of Agony, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy XI...), but you get the main points. What do you guys think? Anybody care to share their ideas about loot-drop paradoxes?

"We don't know the meaning of life, but we're pretty sure that we were put here in this world to enjoy ourselves."

Are we right? So thank goodness for gaming, and have a great new year, everybody!

Thanks for spending 2006 with us. We wouldn't be here without you. We're thankful that you make us your "quick jump" into what's happening in the gaming world. In 2007, we'll do our best to be an even better one-stop-shop for your news needs.

That's our Number One New Year's Resolution.

Also remember that sometimes happiness is something you have to make yourself (that sounds biologically painful and improper, but it's true). So we're going to do our best to generate happiness for our readers this year. We've got some big plans for you, the QJ.NET community. For example, you know that you can now filter news on the "BoB" (the "Blog of Blogs" or QJ.NET main page) if you're a member, and becoming a member of the community is fast and easy. Some changes are taking place at the QJ.NET Forums. We'll continue introducing more improvements this year.

By the way, our other two New Year's Resolutions are easier to keep. We'll be more carefull with spelingg. We'll also edit out bad puns (that'll be tough because new year resolutions go in one year and out the other). Have a great 2007, dear readers!

As you know, a game "going gold" means its final version is done and ready to be sold. World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade has gone gold, and nothing stands in the way of the January 16 launch of this big expansion for one of the biggest MMORPGs in history (if not the biggest MMORPG in history).

WorthPlaying credits Blizzard CM Tseric as their source, and they also listed a few of the things you can expect from Burning Crusade. After all the news, it's a nice recap of some of the features that make this expansion worth its weight in blog entries:

• An increase in the level cap to 70
• Two new playable races, including the magical Blood Elves
• New starting zones in Quel'Thalas and beyond
• The entire new continent of Outland, reachable through the Dark Portal
• Many new high-level dungeons to explore in Azeroth, Outland, and elsewhere
• New flying mounts in Outland
• Many new and dangerous monsters, including epic world bosses
• Hundreds of new quests
• Hundreds of new items
• A new profession: Jewelcrafting
• Socketed items

Bring on the Blood Elves and Draenei!