This week in ´neues´: Will Wright interview

Will Wright interview

A few days ago, I was able to interview Will Wright at some length about ´Spore´ and user-generated content in general. The interview was conducted for the weekly technology show I work for, 3sat neues. Simply click on Will Wright to download the full 25 minute interview in English.

We discuss ´Spore´ and user-generated content in general. We go into some depth about quality assurance, the design of the editors, the use of artificial intelligence in ´Spore´ and balancing freedom with guiding the player. We also discuss some of the surprisingly low ratings by a number of reviewers, especially out here in Germany. Further, I ask Will Wright about the commercial failure of ´The Movies´ and whether that shows inherent limitations of user participation.

We go on to discuss Sporenography and whether it presents a threat to the idea of user-generated content. Will Wright then reveals what he considers the main challenges for a possible ´Spore´ sequel (or similar game). He also believes that this trend is not exclusive to the games medium, drawing parallels to the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Please check it out.

Other gaming-related topics

Tomorrow's show will also focus on ´LittleBigPlanet´, show a feature on hobby developers in Germany, a report from this year´s ´Ars Electronica´ art and media festival, as well as a portrait of Julian Oliver, designer of the ingenious augmented reality game ´LevelHead´ (you can also download the entire interview with him - in English - from our website).

Our studio guest this week is Benjamin Nitschke, co-founder and head programmer of ex:Dream Studios (´Arena Wars´, ´XNA Racing Game´) who talks about user-generated content, middleware tools like XNA, indie development and how hobby developers can turn professional. Finally, we review Google's Chrome browser. The show is in German. You can watch it on television at these times:

Sunday, 14th of September, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 16th of September, 1:50 am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 18th of September, 1:30 pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)

You can also watch it online through our station's Mediatheque. This direct link should go live Sunday afternoon. Soon after, you can download the entire programme through our podcast page, where you also find the above bonus content.

Source: 3sat neues

This week in ´neues´: augmented reality demonstration

You remember that I quit my job with a general newsroom in October and became a full-time games and technology editor? As a reminder, I now work for 3sat neues, the German equivalent to the BBC´s Click, if you will.

This is the first of many shameless plugs of our weekly programme. But you will want to tune in, believe you me - even if you don´t speak German. We often examine current technological innovations that are making the rounds on the internet in detail and try them out ourselves. And a lot of them are directly or indirectly related to gaming or, specifically, Wii. Just remember my history of Super Mario in 4 minutes.

And this week, we will have another interesting demonstration for you. After we tried out Johnny Chung Lee´s now notorious 3D application for Wii in the first show this year, we have now invited the people behind Total Immersion´s D´Fusion technology into the studio, which stands for cutting edge augmented reality.

You are likely to remember the company from the DEMO events and various interviews. And you will remember augmented reality from the golden age of Wii mysteries and wild speculation. Here is a reminder from this blog:

Why 3D projection makes sense (February 2006)
The price of the future (June 2005)
Augmented reality is reality already (June 2005)
Not virtual, but augmented reality? (June 2005)

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Watch 3sat neues

You can watch this week´s programme on television, as ever, anywhere in Europe at these times:

Sunday, 3rd of February, 4:30pm CET (3sat)
Monday, 4th of February, 7:00am CET (3sat)
Monday, 4th of February, 9:45am CET (3sat)
Tuesday, 5th of February, 1:50am CET (ZDF)
Thursday, 7th of February, 1:30pm CET (ZDF-Infokanal)

Better still, you can watch the entire programme and each individual item as a video stream (will go live Sunday evening) or download the entire programme and bonus content through our podcast page.

Source: 3sat neues

My history of Super Mario in 4 minutes

If you are interested in what has kept me from posting recently, please view my history of Super Mario in 4 minutes or read the text version. Both the video and online text are in German, but the amazing work of our graphics department is worth checking it out even if you do not speak it.



On a personal note, please stick by this blog. I am preparing a very comprehensive study of one of the so-called indie development studios that have been rumoured to be developing for Wii. Will we ever play their games on a Nintendo system? I have compiled weeks of research and hope to be able to answer that question. The post will be up soon. Please stay tuned.

Source: 3sat

I quit

Leaving RTL II

After eight years in their newsroom, I have handed in my notice at the private German television station RTL II. As of November, I will become technology editor with the public sector station 3sat, based in Mainz, Hesse.

I usually do not post personal matters, but this is the single most important change in my professional life so far. It will also greatly affect this blog, as I will no longer be dealing with general daily news and current affairs. Instead, I will be exclusively focussing on technology-related topics, particularly IT, multimedia and computer and videogames.

I will work for their weekly technology show called ´Neues´. If you do speak German, you should check it out. It is a great program and airs on 3sat as well as ZDF and the ZDF-Infokanal.

Leaving Cologne

This will involve me leaving Cologne behind and moving to Frankfurt. Below is the flyer for my farewell party. Just so you understand the title, ´Alaaf´ is a salute used in the Cologne carnival. It rhymes with the word ´half´.



Looking back

As a technology editor, I will no longer deal with videogames only on the side. So this change will undoubtedly have a positive impact on my blog. Since this blog is nearing my 500th post, isn´t this a good time to look back at this blog´s various achievements?

I revealed that Wii would be significantly underpowered compared to the competition. I revealed that ´Zelda: Twilight Princess´ would use Wiimote functionality, rather than being merely a Gamecube game playable on Wii. In fact, Shigeru Miyamoto told me exclusively and in person.

I was also first to interview Pablo Belmonte, creator of the ´Nintendo On´ video. And I brought you the first developer comments regarding the Wii - by Peter Molyneux and Yuji Naka, no less.

And, of course, I ousted numerous fakers (like Seriousgamer007 and Kenton Bailey) and I played ´Red Steel´ before almost every other game journalist. I even told you the name before it went public by linking to this image.

I told you more than two months in advance that Rockstar´s ´Table Tennis´ was coming to Wii and my long-time readers knew about a ´Star Wars´ game featuring lightsaber action more than a year before it was finally announced. Finally, I recently revealed that the Wii´s friend codes will be game-specific.

Looking forward

What is more: I had a real blast writing all this stuff for you and I greatly appreciate all of you good people coming here. I apologize for the recent lack of updates, but both looking for a new job and moving to Frankfurt has kept me tremendously busy. Things will get back to normal over the next few weeks. And, as a technology editor, I am sure that I will be able to post even more exclusives than I have been able to so far.