My apologies for my complete lack of entries over the last couple months. As I said in an earlier entry, things have been crazy between final exams (and papers), graduation and moving out to San Francisco. I am slowly getting settled here in good ‘ole SF, but it would be nice if the moving company would hurry their butts up and get out here. I don’t want to get into it, but it has not been fun. I will never use this particular moving company (or any moving company again). I have now been sleeping on an air mattress for over 2 weeks. I have also been living out of a suitcase, wearing the same bunch of clothes over and over. Enough is enough. First they told us Tuesday, then they told us Thursday (tomorrow) and now they have informed us they *MAY* be here on Friday. Ugh. Anyways, enough of that. That is not related to games or gaming (except perhaps I could make and educational game that teaches moving companies how to make their customers happy, all based on my boyfriend and I’s experience).
In the realm of game related news, last night Daniel and I went to the San Francisco Game Development Meetup, as facilitated through the website www.meetup.com. It was a great time. I would estimate that approximately 25 people showed up. It was extremely relaxed and low key, my kind of get together. It was at the food court at the Metreon. It wasn’t the best for a venue, as they kicked us out around 10, but it worked for the most part. We met some really interesting and potentially helpful people, including a young gentleman who works as a producer for Activision, another older gentleman who is working on an independent iPhone project, and a couple of recent graduates from the Academy of Art University (a pretty big thing in San Francisco). I didn’t get to talk to as many as I would have liked, as I got completely absorbed in a conversation with the guy from Activision. I must admit, I enjoyed this setting and group of people much more than Postmortem (Boston IGDA chapter). Postmortem always left me feeling frazzled, overwhelmed and stressed out. At the end of the meeting all I wanted to do was go home and sleep. The people also seemed much less friendlier in Boston. It almost felt as though if you weren’t big yet, you were nothing. Here at the SFGD Meetup, everyone was so laid back and friendly. I felt much more compelled to walk up to people and introduce myself. I also think the location was better than Postmortem. Postmortem was always held at extremely loud and overcrowded bars. The food court wasn’t ideal (as I said), but it was better than trying to talking to someone over horrible karaoke singing. So overall, a very good experience. I look forward to the next meeting (hopefully next month).
Anyways, a few articles of interest, all of which pertain to Electronic Arts (because EA Games and Maxis is my favorite company):
1) EA has decided to release some its top titles simultaneously on Mac and PC. You can read a brief article HERE. Note that EA’s most popular franchise, the Sims, is released for Macs, but only after it has already been released for PC. The titles that will be released this summer include Command & Conquer 3, Need For Speed Carbon, Battlefield 2142 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Other titles that will simultaneously debut on Mac, PC and consoles include Madden NFL ‘08 and Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08.
2) As of today (June 20th) the release of Spore has been pushed back to 2009. An article speculating why can be read HERE. At this rate, I bet you a Sims 3 will be released before Spore. This doesn’t surprise me, but it does disappoint me a little. Although, now I have over a year to save up the money to upgrade my computer so it will meet the minimum standards.
3) Also in EA news, the next title in the SimCity franchise has been announced, and it sounds interesting. It is called SimCity Societies. You can read the press release on EA’s website, HERE. Now I have never been a fan of the SimCity series (I prefer controlling people rather than cities and all their smog and waste), but this one may suck me in. In the normal SimCity games you can only control the cities and things such as smog, pollution, taxes, etc. However, in SimCity societies you will be able to control the culture, “societal behavior” and even environment of you town or city. As Ron Humble (Vice President and Studio Head of The Sims Division) states in the press release; “There is such a variety of cities to build from in SimCity Societies – and they’re all such a blast to play. Sometimes I build an aggressive police state where stragglers are dragged off to re-conditioning centers and emerge ready for work. Other times, I build a green community in the tropics, where the citizens grow their own food and have a small environmental footprint. With so many options to choose from, SimCity Societies is the most flexible city building game ever!” It sounds exciting to me. It is set to arrive this holiday season. Hopefully this date will stick. I am actually excited.
4) Reuters has announced that EA will now be divided into four separate “business units”. The article can be found HERE. The four units will be, EA Games, EA Sports, EA Casual Entertainment, and the Sims. Yes, that’s right, the Sims gets their very own business unit. This gave me a bit of a chuckle. My guess is that the Sims “unit” will include, obviously, the Sims, My Sims, SimCity and perhaps Spore.
Well I think that is all for now. That was probably a bit of EA overload, but they have been in the news pretty heavily for the past few days, so I just had to weigh in on it. I will try and update more regularly, but I can’t make any promise. I am now working full time, and still trying to get settled in. Oh the life of an adult. Is it time to go back to school yet?