IGN reports that Monolith — those wacky developers who brought you Blood, Shogo, and FEAR — are planning a sequel to the latter. Unfortunately, they don’t own the rights to the intellectual property they created; those rest with the original publisher, Vivendi. So, Monolith has to come up with a new name for their sequel. In order to do so, they’re running a contest here where you can submit your cleverest suggestion. Three finalists will get the chance to tour the Monolith facilities, as well as get their names and likenesses included in the game. Prepare for the onslaught of clever acronyms! My submission? NUTS: Nobody Understands This Shit.
Bill Gates, during the alternate reality episode in which he appeared on stage next to Steve Jobs, made some statements in regards to videogames. Particularly, he was interested in game control mechanisms. GamesIndustry.biz has the Microsoft founder speculating on how sports games of the future might be controlled with tennis rackets, golf clubs, baseball bats, and the like. Rather than being like the Wii, though, Gates is hoping robotics will have advanced enough that the console could "see" what the player is doing in real space, and translate that directly into the game. There’s a robot in Japan already that can see a baseball being thrown and position its hand to catch it, so this doesn’t seem too far off the mark. Of course, in parallel, I really hope game design heads toward Microsoft’s recently revealed Surface technology.
Dennis McCauley of GamePolitics doesn’t seem too fond of new ESA chief Michael Gallagher, who is stepping in to fill the vacated shoes of Doug Lowenstein.
Newly-founded indie publisher Gamecock keeps on adding games to their lineup, providing an awful lot of tempting pudding for the proof to be in. In the meantime, it’s kind of nice to hear from the folks behind the publishing house, which exists in a state of defiant individuality and general rebellion. Here’s a manifesto/editorial from CEO Mike Wilson, carried on GamesIndustry.biz. Choice quote: "As the most creative, most passionate and most visionary force in videogames, it is developers who should be given the reigns to our gaming future." Insert ‘the most poor’ in their somewhere, and a cynic might concldue that Gamecock will fail like the Gathering of Developers did.
I think I’m going to enter the world of politics, become respected and even loved by my constituents, sail on a wave of popularity to the White House, and then declare in my inauguration speech that videogames made me do it.