Videogame advertising giant Massive Incorporated has recently released a couple of press releases (Link to 1, Link to 2) announcing strategic partnerships and network “inclusions”; these most recent ones being mentioned over on Blue’s News. One interesting comment in these most recent releases is a quote from THQ’s executive vice president of worldwide publishing, Kelly Flock:

We are excited to team with Massive because we believe their network strategy and sensitivity to game play will deliver value to publishers, advertisers and gamers.

Sensitivity to game play? Who do they think they’re kidding here? Oh wait. Maybe forcing gamers to watch things like ads for feminine hygiene products will make both them and the game play more sensitive. I know that if I were camping near a billboard displaying that stuff, I’d reconsider my actions and log off.

Aleks, over on the Guardian Unlimited’s Gamesblog, has posted a “Best of” for the year (Link) and somewhat (though not entirely) surprisingly, has included “Second Life“. It’s a short list – only three titles long – which also includes “Sprung” and “The Movies” (used to create “The French Democracy” about which I’ve written). Aleks had this to say about Second Life:

It’s been out since 2003, but this is the year they went from 18,000 subscribers to 90,000 subscribers, which has changed things immensely. It’s not really a game; it’s whatever you make it.

I suspect this endorsement will help grow the population. Good thing there’s no mention the basic account is free, or developer Linden Lab would have their hands full keeping up.

There’s been a nice flurry of activity over on the RepRap site (Link); lots of parts being designed and sent out for fabrication to be used in the initial units, a growing RepRap wiki and another participant.

For anyone who remembers my post on the glue gun fabrication device back in April (Link), Vic Olliver – it’s creator – has made excellent progress on the next, upgraded version. He’s also been posting entries on it’s development, including one on the gears shown above (Link). The parts are all FDM this time around and are all ABS I believe, but they’ll be great for a first unit which can be used to take a first pass at creating parts using the final device’s intended material. It might take a few iterations on the design to get something that can create the bulk of its own parts (in order to replicate itself), but this is a great start.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Vic Olliver}

Will Wright just blew my mind. This guy is great. It wasn’t so long ago he announced his forthcoming, ground-breaking videogame “Spore” (see some of my earlier posts regarding that videogame and it’s technology via this Link). But to see a theoretical side (with nice, supporting 3D charts and images), watch this video (Link) over on C|Net. When “Spore” is released, I’m going to create more Will Wrights.

“Itsa wha? Huh?” = My first thoughts.

This is a “Voronoi Structure”. I have no clue what that is (for now). All I do know is that a) it’s kinda cool and b) they used Rhino to assist in fabricating(?) it. So since I’m no help, here’s what the caption says over on the Archinect gallery (Link) where I found it:

First results of the integration of the qvoronoi alogorithm into Rhino as an interactive design tool. Currently research is done on how to exploit structural and spatial design capabilities of the voronoi graph. ETHZ, 3rd year, studio Gregor Eichinger

More questions? Email that guy.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Gregor Eichinger}