Coffee Talk #473: Judging Student Games at USC

Instead of my usual evening of WWE Monday Night Raw, I spent last Monday at the USC School of Cinematic Arts judging student projects. My excellent friend Joseph Olin teaches a graduate school class there called The Business of Interactive Media. The projects covered a wide range of topics. I got to see traditional…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, devouring New York pizza, devouring New York chicken parm sammiches, or Ashton Kutcher going on vacation with Mila Kunis (nooooooo!!!), Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Instead of my usual evening of WWE Monday Night Raw, I spent last Monday at the USC School of Cinematic Arts judging student projects. My excellent friend Joseph Olin teaches a graduate school class there called The Business of Interactive Media. The projects covered a wide range of topics. I got to see traditional games, social networking apps, educational projects, and even a modern interpretation of Hindu scriptures. The projects were very cool…

…but not as cool as the students! It was inspiring and refreshing to hear pitches from MFA students instead of people already in the gaming business. You could feel the passion and energy as the students spoke about their projects. There was a certain purity in their visions — a charming mixture of smarts, bravery, and naïveté combined with a lack of experience that didn’t let them know, “Hey! You can’t do that!” It was beautiful to watch, listen to, and learn from these cats.

The shocking part was that I offered a bunch of suggestions on how to monetize their projects. As most of you know, I’m not the most business-minded person in the world. So I was surprised that I became that guy for one class. “This would be a cool project for Microsoft Surface. Have you thought about partnering with MS?” “This seems like a project XXXX would grossly overpay for!” “How about partnering with AT&T to sponsor an event like Coachella and using your app to sponsor signal trucks?” I felt a little dirty trying to taint these pure visions. Ha!

Anyway, that was a brief rundown of my Monday spent judging interactive media projects at USC. It was a lot of fun and very inspiring. Thanks to Joseph and all the MFA students for the experience!

What Are You Playing This Weekend?

I’m still in New York, so my only gaming device is my iPad 2012. Thankfully, it’s awesome and it has awesome games! Jetpack Joyride and Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP received big updates this week. That’s a good excuse to revisit those fine games. Skylanders: Cloud Patrol is always great for several rounds of cartoonish shooting. Of course I still play Civilization: Revolution every day. Yeah, for work and play, the new iPad completely rules.

How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?

IGDA Makes Finding Kickstarter Gaming Pitches Easy

Last week I was talking to my pal Gordon Bellamy, executive director of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA). He mentioned that the IGDA has this nifty curated page on Kickstarter that helps prospective backers find cool videogame projects on the site. In addition to new pitches, a backlog of old ones is kept so that people can see and learn from past projects. The descriptions are written by IGDA staffers. For example, I would bet $1,000 that Gordon himself wrote the description to Sira the Game, which begins with, “This game is hot, like the sun.”

If you’re interested in keeping up with Kickstarter videogame pitches but don’t have the time to scour the site every day then I recommend bookmarking the page.

Adam Sessler Future Endeavored by G4

Longtime broadcast journalist Adam Sessler and G4TV have parted ways. Many of you know Adam as the host of X-Play. The man is old school. He started on the show in the late ’90s when it was GameSpot TV on Ziff-Davis’ ZDTV network. He stayed with the show when it became Extended Play and the network was renamed Tech TV. Eventually the show was renamed X-Play and became part of the Comcastic G4TV giant.

In addition to being the biggest television personality in videogames, a wonderful editorialist, and a diligent critic, Adam is universally liked and respected throughout the business. If you have a problem with Adam Sessler from a work standpoint then the problem is almost definitely staring back at you in the mirror. Of course there are times when people disagree with him, but the vast majority of the people I know adore and respect Adam.

On a personal level, I just love the man. Obviously we can talk about games all day, but Adam is really passionate about boxing too. Both of us love watching boxing and spend time training in boxing gyms (neither of us are what you’d call dangerous). One of my favorite moments in our relationship was when I was tipsy (understatement) at a Sega event and ordered a Johnny Walker Blue with soda; Adam chided me  for three minutes before making the bartender pour me a Blue on the rocks. He’s smart, he always adds something interesting to conversations, and he’s one of the most outstanding people in the world to drink with. That said, he was also responsible for me working at G4 and I’m going to hold that over his head for at least another decade (“First round is on you, right Adam? I mean, you got me the G4 gig and look how that turned out!”)

X-Play without Adam Sessler is going to be strange. How do you feel about the future endeavoring (WWE trademark) of Adam Sessler?

Google Launches Google Drive Cloud Storage Service

Competing with Dropbox, Skydrive, Box, and more, Google has launched the Google Drive cloud storage service. Users get 5GB of storage for free, with up to 16TB — yes, terabytes — for an additional fee. Google Drive currently works with Mac OS, Windows, and Android. iOS devices will be supported soon.

Like many of you RPadholics, I’m an avid Dropbox user. However, I’m totally willing to give Google Drive a shot. I’m tied to so many other Google services (Gmail, Google Docs, Google+, Google Voice, etc.) that tight cloud integration with Google Drive would be best. Sadly, Google Drive isn’t available on any of my four Google accounts (two Gmail, two Google Apps). I’ll have to wait to see if Google Drive will serve me as well as Dropbox.

Any of you excited about Google Drive? Do you have access yet?

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Totally Charmed By Darth Vader and Son

Just when I thought I was completely over physical books, Darth Vader and Son came along and completely charmed me. This hyper-adorable picture-book features Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker as if they were a normal father-and-son pair doing normal father-and-son things. For example, Vader takes Luke to the Mos Eisley cantina and chides him for making bubbles in his drink. Ha! When Luke has his eye on a Jar Jar Binks toy, daddy Vader says, “These are not the toys you’re looking for.” Double ha!

Check out the video above and the images below for more info on Darth Vader and Son. Any of you going to buy it?!?

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Coffee Talk #472: “Yes!” vs. “What?” vs. “Ask Him!”

Catchphrases are an important part of professional wrestling. “If you smell what The Rock is cooking,” “That’s the bottom line,” and “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man,” are phrases we all know and love from pro-wrestlers. Then there are secondary phrases. I’m talking about…

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, United Airlines being ruined by Jeff Smisek, Metta World Peace’s disgusting elbow shot to James Harden, or loving Bobby Valentine’s Red Sox woes, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

Catchphrases are an important part of professional wrestling. “If you smell what The Rock is cooking,” “That’s the bottom line,” and “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man,” are phrases we all know and love because of pro-wrestlers. Then there are secondary phrases. I’m talking about short lines that wrestlers say and fans chant. The recent Daniel Bryan “Yes!” phenomenon got me thinking about these types of sayings.

Of course the greatest secondary catchphrase of all time is Ric Flair’s “Whooooooo!!!” It’s simply awesome. No matter what wrestling company and no matter the size of the crowd, you can always count on hearing “Whooooo!!!” after a knife-edge chop is delivered. That’s amazing and powerful. As for the others, I’m a huge fan of Chris Jericho’s “Ask him!!!”. Steve Austin’s “What?!?” is used (and abused) by millions of fans, even when it’s not appropriate.

Please participate in the battle for the #2 secondary pro-wrestling catchphrase of all time by voting in today’s poll and leaving a comment! If you need a refresher on these catchphrases then check out the videos below before casting your vote.

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Two Weeks With the Razer Tiamat Elite 7.1

I have high expectations of Razer products. The company makes some of the best keyboards and mice I’ve ever used. Its audio products are generally impressive. Every now and then, a Razer product disappoints me (see the Razer Onza controller for Xbox 360), but that’s largely because the vast majority of my experiences with the company’s products have been superior. With all of that in mind, I was quite pleased with my experience with the Razer Tiamat Elite 7.1. Here’s a rundown of my two weeks with this fine product.

Build Quality: Like most Razer products, the build quality of the Tiamat is top notch. You can feel the product’s quality the second you pull it out of the box (great packaging, btw). It feels substantive and the heft of the drivers is immediately evident. The audio cable is of the braided cloth variety, which guards against tangles and interference; it has a more luxurious feel than standard plastic cords. The ear cups are heavily padded for long gaming sessions.

The retractable microphone is great in that it’s easy to stow when you don’t need it. That said, the mic was my only quibble as far as build quality and construction go. I prefer flexible mics to hard, plastic ones. The retractable microphone on the SteelSeries 7H is one of my favorites, for example. Aside from my minor issue with the mic (totally personal preference), the hardware quality is outstanding.

Comfort: You would think that a relatively heavy headset would be uncomfortable, but that’s not the case with the Tiamat. I already mentioned the heavily padded ear cups, but the winner here is the suspension strap that goes between your head and the headset’s plastic frame. It distributes the weight of the headset so that it doesn’t feel heavy. I wore the Tiamat for several multi-hour gaming sessions. Once I had it on for three hours just to see if it would get uncomfortable (and also because it made me feel like Lobot). It didn’t. It’s a safe bet that some of you will be shocked by how light the Tiamat feels on your head.

Sound Quality: For the most part, the sound quality of the Tiamat is great. Obviously it’s targeted towards gamers, but it’s fantastic for mainstream movies too. By default, I found the the bass to be hopped up, which is ideal for action games and action movies. Explosions, gunfire, Michael Clarke Duncan’s voice, etc. sounded magnificent. Any game with an emphasis on sound design gets a boost from this headset.

For music, I had to tweak some EQ settings to get a flatter response. Again, this is a personal preference. Mainstream consumers generally favor exaggerated bass (see Beats by Dre), but I prefer an even response (see Etymotic) for music. For non-action movies, you’ll probably want to tweak the audio too…but this headset wasn’t really made with viewings of Sense and Sensibility in mind.

As for the 7.1 surround sound effect, it’s very good, but no match for a true 7.1 speaker setup. Of course most gamers don’t have enough room for a full 7.1 surround sound speaker setup, so headsets like the Tiamat are the only way to get that kind of experience. For action games or stealth games where pinpoint audio helps determine your success, the Tiamat is a winner.

Volume Box: The Tiamat’s volume box is worth mentioning. This breakout box lets you control a multitude of features. For convenience, it allows you to switch between the headset and your PC’s speakers, switch between 7.1 and stereo sound, mute sound entirely, control the master volume, and more. It also allows you to tweak the individual speakers in the headset for an insane amount of control. It’s just a really, really impressive and powerful unit that rounds out the Tiamat’s overall offering nicely.

Conclusion: Yes, the Tiamat is on the expensive side of gaming headsets, but you’re getting top-of-the-line features. The sound quality is very good. The comfort is outstanding. The 7.1 sound is as good as it gets in terms of headsets. As far as gaming audio goes, it doesn’t get much better than the Razer Tiamat Elite 7.1.

Gambitious: A Gaming-Specific, Kickstarter Alternative

Kickstarter-funded games are all the rage these days. Independent developers are thrilled with the creative freedom crowd-funding offers, but there are some that are skeptical of the model. One interesting alternative is Gambitious…

Kickstarter-funded games are all the rage these days. Independent developers are thrilled with the creative freedom crowd-funding offers, but there are some that are skeptical of the model. One interesting alternative is Gambitious, which is set to launch at E3 2012 according to Gameindustry.biz. Instead of finding donors for companies, backers buy equity in games. Here’s more from CEO Korstiaan Zandvliet:

The main difference between Gambitious and the currently popular Kickstarter is that the former does not rely on donations. Instead, a developer decides what percentage of the required funding people can buy. Someone who invests money in a project, becomes a shareholder and is entitled to dividends.

The model is compelling for both the developer and the backer. Developers have more flexibility with how their games are funded, while backers stand to earn some money back. While it doesn’t have the romantic feel of donating to “dream” projects, I imagine that there are many people that would be more comfortable with Gambitious’ model than Kickstarter’s system.

How do you feel about Gambitious? Would you rather buy equity in a game than donate to a developer? Or does the difference not matter to you?

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