gewgaw

How awesome is the earth’s geomagnetic field?

It looks like a spider, in space.

Can you imagine being able to see it’s forces in your everyday life? Crazy!!

The only thing that makes this cooler than cool…

… is that we actually had a green pop-top VW “love bus” camper van when I was a kid… the last of three!

From the MySims Roadshow, happening this week in Germany! Thanks K!!

ps: Wiiii!

If you haven’t already, watch this today & pass it on. More here. Full lecture here.

Best, Randy. Thanks for so much!

Ok, I’m still really tired.

I woke up this morning, like a gunshot, at 3 am. And I went to bed, kinda tipsy, at 10:30. After a bunch of tossing and turning – I went for a run. Now I’m tired AND sore.

But I did manage to post the MySims hands-on pix from the Lalaport adventure – soooo cute. Also, looks like we got some more good press on Game Watch (scroll down) and our Famitsu review was also tops. Fantastic news for the whole team!

Flew in this afternoon – and wow, I’m tired.

Chew on this link (and then this, if you hadn’t already) while I take a nap and process the trip for a subsequent post….

Today we went with Raph, Mark and MB to the Ghibli museum – super inspiring (see Raph’s sunday poem!) and worth a full post at a later time.

THEN… we ventured out to LaLaport (a mall south east of Tokyo, near the water) to see the on-site kiosk demos for MySims.

OMG! If you thought the game was cute – try being surrounded by adorable children as the squeal in delight while hugging and dancing with the giant-head foam-form MySims characters.

Seriously, I thought I would die.

Highlights posted here include mom photographers…

Chef Gino posing with a girl and her grandmother for a mom photographer…

Faces as kids & parents built houses & made characters…

… and saw their creations come to life…

The anticipation in the kids *waiting* to play…

… watching people play…

And the awesomness that is Gino Delicioso.

A huge giant mega godzilla thank you to the entire EAJ staff, and all EA folks who are setting up these events, worldwide. Way to make people smile!!!

Best. Day. Evar!

Wow – it’s really shipped!!! Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!

Store display doll from Hong Kong (Mini-Me version) – and Japanese packaging.

The Tokyopia pre-TGS party was suuuuper fun this year – a great venue, great people and all around flawless event planning. So glad that Jane convinced me to go – I was going to lame out and just sleep.

Best part of the night was an after-party at a bar called Air – just a nice vibe, with an art jam happening as we hung out.

I say it every time I vist but really, wow. It is just so great here.

The Japanese MySims ads are really nifty.

Note how the girl’s look and play activities change across the ads.

So excited to see everything set up in Tokyo. Will be back on the 26th!

Ross -> Lulu -> Me -> EA -> Colm -> Traditional Irish Music @ O’Reilly’s -> photos

Super fun to shoot with the new camera!

Everywhere in the industry, over the next few months, people will be emailing review scores around. Averages, commentary, play-by-plays… it’s like being at the Olympics. A hush falls over the crowd as the German judge holds up their card. Will the bump be enough to lead to a podium position? Everyone conjectures about what the scores mean, how they can be interpreted, and waits for the results to roll in.

But this method never even occurred to me for “packaged games”. It’s a representation of demand that isn’t necessarily correlated with sales.. which makes it a really interesting thing to consider. How many rental conversions can one reasonably expect? In the future – will all games consider their click-through rate?

“Agile is the new Black”

This is really really beautiful.

There has been some interesting discussion about the fate of third party developers on Wii, lately.

However, success on the Wii will require something many publishers aren’t very good at – innovation, and its attendant partner, risk. Developing products for the Wii is cheap, no more expensive than developing for the PS2. However, it is risky, because the console demands new styles of gameplay, new types of user interaction, and new forms of content that appeal to an audience more diverse than those found on other console platforms.

While I agree that it’s hard for *any* publisher to resist the urge to crank sequels, because it’s easy money… that sure doesn’t seem to such a bad idea on Wii:

01. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
02. Carnival Games
03. Wii Play w/ Remote
04. Guitar Hero III Bundle
05. Mario Party 8
06. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
07. Super Mario Galaxy*—Nintendo
08. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
09. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08
10. Mario Strikers Charged

I’ll leave the innovation status of Carnival Games & Wii Play as an exercise for the reader….

Looking at the what’s coming soon for Wii I think there are a lot of interesting, rapid, risky projects out there – from a lot of different studios. It will be *really* interesting to see what happens this xmas…

I love this camera! I also love working from home because I eat better, so I get more done, which makes me feel happier. Plus – no driving! I wonder what my productivity would be like if I worked from home 2 days a week.

Eggs over-medium complimented by leftovers from grilling with Jon the other night: Chipotle-stuffed Grilled Avocado (recipe courtesy of Darius), re-fried grill-baked potatos with smoked organic cheddar, grapefruit-oj & philosopher’s swill. Lulu is making me into a cook again!!!

Mugs are from Big Tomato Company – highly awesome & worth the freight (my first 3: God, Goddess & Village Idiot came from Kass, who is a genius programmer – someone should snap her up for a fun games project over there!!!)

Ok so today was “Hot Summer Nights” at EA – a press/pr event where we show off all the cool stuff we’ve got going out for xmas. In what can only be described as a series of very strange events I managed to photograph the engine of a helicopter, cuddle a chimp, and drink a mai-tai during a meeting. It was such a strange day!

The highlight was definitely watching the chimp watch someone play MySims. SO CUTE!

A good post on trust, gaming and social networking!

So I finally went out and bought myself a new camera. After much deliberation, I picked up the Nikon D80 (standard kit w/zoom) and a fancy low-light lense (Nikkor 50mm f/1.4D). Yay!

It has been a long time since I had a new camera – the last one was a present from DC, for xmas – in 2004. This camera cost about $500 more all told – but tech has moved forward so much with SLRs that it really feels like a steal.

I *was* considering the new line of Nikons but at this point in my life, when I’m so focused on work – it seems kind of gaudy to buy a camera that nice. For now – this one feels like the right match.

It’s heavier than my old camera – even with the short lense. It has that “serious photos please” heft that makes me want to go out and shoot everything I see. I think that’s what I’ve missed most about taking photos this last year or so – the feeling of seeing everything with a fresh eye. Now even the things in my own house seem interesting to me – even things I’ve had for years.

People, too. I can feel a portraiture phase coming on, strong. I have this ravenous desire to photograph all sorts of people. Normally I do that from far away – this new lense will give me reasons to get in closer, especially in lower light conditions.

Here are the results of a single day spent doing, essentially, nothing but camera fiddling. I’ve included some action shots I took manually (I suck at it – sigh), low-light photos inside and outside, and time lapse night photos. I still need to play more with the short lense in landscapes and such – we’ll see what I can get to next weekend.

But all in all – a great way to spend a Saturday! Special thanks to Lulu for her patience and cooking… and Ross for the lessons in timed self-portraits!!!

Souris (who was BoingBoinged like 8 times this last week – jebus!) posted her birthday photos. I am always amazed by how many people I know who know her… and with each party it becomes clearer and clearer that one day we will all be working for her!

These pix include, among other things, photos of the first real “LA party dress” I’ve ever purchased. It sure was fun to pick out and wear… but looking out my window at the fog, I’m wondering if I’ll ever wear it again…

:)

PS: Check the awesome art pose from DC – so very Mummenshantz!