At least, it will if you are playing around with Dave's Mapper.  I'm not sure how he did this.  It appears Dave (and friends!) sat down and drew himself some dungeon levels, old school style.  But he drew lots.  Lots and lots.  And then he drew some more.  And he divided everything into sections, which he scanned and uploaded.  The tool randomly takes sections and splices them together, ensuring that there is a proper path through the dungeon (some areas can be blocked off, but that's good; it leaves room for  good DM to add detail).  Fans of tabletop gaming that tended towards pen-and-paper RPGs will immediately love it.  Anyone else who is curious about why we love some of the things we love is encouraged to take a look.  The maps spring off the page and tug at the imagination.

It can't be wasting time if it feels good to do it, right?

Obey the Game is the latest flash game effort from thoughtful author John (previous interesting efforts include: Achievement Unlocked and This is the Only Level).  The other games I mentioned offered some interesting if shallow looks at certain kinds of game mechanics.  Obey the Game is cleverer and more fun to boot.  The game places you in a series of challenges, each needing to be beaten before a short timer expires.  The goal is displayed in the center of the screen (e.g. "use the stairs" on a level with several spiked platforms and, yes, a stair case).  Follow the instructions and you advance to the next level.  Consecutive wins will net extra lives.  Some of the challenges are arcadish and they get harder as you go.  Simple right?  Well, the game (randomly?  I don't know) will sometimes tell you to "disobey", which means doing the opposite.  Don't take the stairs (dying is appropriate here!).  Don't collect the coins.  Stay alive (on the suicide level, natch). The only thing that costs a life is failing to obey (or, if the game so orders it, disobey) the goal.  The challenge escalates quickly often meaning a split second decision wins or loses the level.  The game is surprisingly fun.

Secondly, we have Elona Shooter .  A castle defense game based on the fascinating rogue like of the same name.  It features different classes, leveling and skill gain, lots of structures to build up in town which do different things, loot collecting.  It's difficult but pretty fun.  Hunter and Rogue are the suggested starting classes (both get an immediate helper you'll want to replace ASAP.  The hunter gets a bow gun, they rule.  The rogue is a money making machine).  You can earn achievements to help you on the current and subsequent play-throughs (if you're a masochist; I am).

Jeff Vogel has his second in a two part blog post detailing some of the cost and sales numbers for Spider Web's games (part the first). It's pretty fascinating even though he doesn't hand out every last detail. It also shows how leveraging online distribution allows a game maker to benefit from the long tail. Geneforge 4, the game detailed, is not yet profitable but is on the cusp. And is a sure thing to be a long-term money earner even if it's not spectacular by indie standards (which are irrelevant by the money-hat-making standards of someone like Blizzard or even the money-bracelet-making standards of Valve).  It costs Spiderweb software nothing to offer Geneforge 4 alongside all of its other games.  Here's hoping it sells at a steady rate from now until the stage 4 zombie outbreak Popehat has predicted for 2016, and that he and his are able to weather those trying times and begin making games anew as the remnants of society begin to pick up the pieces (we will need diversions to help ease the burden of the horrors that we came through, of course).

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Amongst the Cheeto-stained sweat-panted ranks of hardcore MMORPG enthusiasts today, there is concern about the state of the economy and the job market. No, not the market for Greater Astral Essence at the Ironforge Auction House. The actual, meat-world economy. Specifically, can you be a hardcore MMORPG gamer, a reliable guildie, a go-to raid partner, and still get a job, pretending for the moment that you ever actually intended to in more than a theoretical sense?

A poorly-sourced rumor has some irrationally worried that the answer is no.

Forum poster Tale over on the f13 forums relates an experience with a recruiter in the online media industry, who reacted negatively to his conversational admission that he had spent too much time playing MMORPG games.

He replied that employers specifically instruct him not to send them World of Warcraft players. He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot give 100% because their focus is elsewhere, their sleeping patterns are often not great, etc. I mentioned that some people have written about MMOG leadership experience as a career positive or a way to learn project management skills, and he shook his head. He has been specifically asked to avoid WoW players.

Anecdote aside, I doubt the employers and recruiters have put out the word "no Blood Elves need apply." Do hardcore MMORPG folks suffer from sleep deprivation, impaired judgment, and dramatically divided priorities? Yes. But so does a much larger group in the employee pool. We're called parents. And our seven-year-old woke us up before six practicing the piano in his underwear, and our two-year-old woke up supernaturally grouchy and kicked us in the nads while we were taking her out of the car at day care. Some dude who stayed up until three in the morning leveling his mage is still in better shape than us to greet the day.

The anecdote does, however, illuminate a job-hunting risk for MMORPGers. If one is so immersed in MMORP culture — and so divorced from the way the rest of us talk to each other — that one thinks that it's a good idea to talk enthusiastically during interviews about "what this computer game taught me about management," then one had better not be applying anywhere else other than a hardcore gaming company.

Hat tip.

OK, I definitely have to buy the iPhone now. Because they're putting Puzzle Quest on it.

The Big Download Blog reports that Stardock, justifiably famed for the excellent Galactic Civilizations series, is buying up classic game licenses in order to produce new installments in beloved game series. Stardock already has one leg up on this process with its Elemental: War of Magic, reputed to be a reboot of classic Simtex/Microprose favorite Master of Magic (which is in my top-ten-of-all-time games list). Big Download Blog reports that Stardock has bought the rights to makea new Master of Orion title, and is working on an crpg in the style of Baldur's Gate.

This is great news for classic gameplay fans. Master of Orion II is also in my all-time top ten; but Master of Orion III was so impenetrable and unpleasant that it actually gave me anxiety nightmares. That seemed to spell the doom of the series. Based on GalCiv II, Stardock seems to have the chops to revive the brand in a big way. (Note to Stardock: an option for turn-based tactical combat, please. One of my favorite features of MOO II — like MoM and Space Empires IV — was complex tactical combat heavily influenced by unit design and management decisions; that tactical combat option was dumbed down, real-timed, or otherwise de-nutted for "broader appeal" in sequels.)

You know, even though I started playing Dungeons & Dragons in about 1978 or 1979, I never encountered the religious opposition to it — you know, "if you play that game, you're going to Hell." (I did encounter the social opposition to it — "if you play that game, you will never have sex with a woman" — and for an uncomfortably long period of time it looked as if they were right.)

So I was a little surprised to see that there's still some religion-based bad feelings about D&D. The creator, Gary Gygax, died this year, and in his honor participants at the largest annual gaming conference, GenCon, decided to donate auction proceeds to his favorite charity, the Christian Children's Fund.

The Christian Children's Fund turned it down, using what sounds to me like a weak and disingenuous excuse:

Christian Children’s Fund made the decision to decline the gift from GenCon, LLC as the request presented to us gave the appearance that CCF (the organization) was an endorser or supporter of a gaming convention, which CCF was not.

As [with] many non-profit organizations, CCF is selective in its endorsements or support in order to maintain the integrity of its name and logo. We cannot lend our name to an event for which we have no involvement. This decision should in no way be interpreted as CCF holding an opinion on Mr. Gygax, gaming enthusiasts or the game Dungeons and Dragons.

Oh, bullshit. No reasonable observer could possibly conclude that CCF was endorsing or supporting anything. The circumstances made it perfectly clear that hobbyists had decided to donate proceeds to the favorite charity of a beloved figure to commemorate him.

Fortunately, another charity had no such bug up its ass and accepted the money in the spirit in which it was offered.

CCF should be embarrassed.

Jack Thompson, notorious anti-gaming firebrand lawyer and virulent nutcase, has been disbarred. Some of the text of the order is here.

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Via Game Politics, I see that a study of 7,00o MMORPG players exploded stereotypes somewhat. Gamers were leaner and exercised more than the American average. However, they were more prone to depression and substance abuse. (Substances other than Cheetos, apparently.)

Of course, I'm fat AND depressed, so I exist outside the curve. Bite me, statisticians!

The study was of Everquest II players. Are they representative? Would WoW players be fatter but less prone to substance abuse, as they lack the necessary social contacts to score alcohol or dope? Only more studies will tell.

A number of gaming sites are talking about a blog Anti-Spore, which criticizes the new and much-anticipated sim game Spore on the grounds that it promotes evolution over creation. The blog is amusing, but the real question is whether it is the work of a creationist or a parody of a creationism. I tend to believe the latter:

Today EA’s stock is down almost a dollar.

I hope that the information about Spore I am making available helped in some small way.

Since Patrick seems to be working on an eldritch horror theme today, I offer you a new version of an online game: Necronomicon 2.0, set in the Lovecraft mythos. This version is well-executed strategy/battle card game, with good basics and the ability to advance levels and save your progress. Enjoy. Via IndieGames.

Several-year-old MMORPG The Saga of Ryzom is back, and is now free, apparently.

I'm tempted to download and make a character just to revisit old times:

Katrina: How come you have to cast it so many times to kill that pig.
Me: Well, I’m pretty inexperienced.
Katrina: But it’s a PIG. You’re supposed to be a wizard. What kind of wizard can’t easily kill a pig?
Me: Um . . .
Katrina: Is it a particularly POWERFUL pig?

I blogged before about Good Old Games, a company launching next month that will permit legitimate downloads of new-OS-optimized classic games. As a fan of the classics, I'm psyched. Via Scorpia, here is a Beta impression from ugo.com. Though the current stable of games is quite limited, the concept and execution show promise and the price is right. The aspect that most concerned me was whether Good Old Games could make older games work on newer systems. It appears that they can:

Installation is similarly easy. The entire game’s contents are contained within a single setup executable. A GOG-branded frontend replaces the original install screens and any software copy protections are done away with, though the games are otherwise unchanged. Setup files can of course be saved for repeated use, though the option to download them an unlimited number of times at no extra cost eliminates the need to use that added storage space.

Functionally, the two games we played with performed well. Fallout and Giants both experienced occasional visual hiccups, though there were no outright crashes or freezes. According to GOG’s support team – who responded in less than 24 hours with a clearly non-canned solution – these glitches are common, the result of pop-ups from programs running in the background. Exiting out of other applications quickly solved the problem for us in both games.

Fantastic.

Over at Rock Paper Shotgun, they've got a brief gameplay review of Fallout 3. Definitely looking forward to it. The review suggested they kept the spirit of off-kilter humor in the game. And even if the Oblivion engine is not bleeding edge, it has huge potential compared to the old isometric engine.

It was almost as splendid as when I killed a bandit, stole his bondage-gear clothes, and wore them, complete with a pair of Gordon-Freeman specs and a baseball cap I’d found. I looked like Rick Moranis gone apeshit crazy, a glorious Mad Max 2 mess.

And with Bethesda saying that it's better than Oblivion . . .

So Richard Garriot, aka Lord British, creator and developer of the seminal Ultima series of crpgs (developing vast gamer goodwill in Ultimas I through VII and squandering it in VIII and IX) is going into space. This time, he doesn't need to type a three digit coordinate to find Planet X. Instead, he'll use some of his gamer-garnered wealth to become the sixth private citizen in space. Iolo and Shamino don't get to come.

Follow the link for Tom Chick's excellent interview. I did not know that Garriot's father is an astronaut — that's cool.