The newest PC Game Sales list is up at GameWeek as usual. No One Lives Forever has finally entered the list, at number 17, most likely because its $23 price tag. Also new on the list is Clive Barker's Undying at #15. The rest of the list is pretty much the same with The Sims still in first place, with Frogger following.

Joystick101 has an article looking at those game design classes that some schools are offering some more, explaining where and what you can learn.

Last week I ran a story about John Romero's status with Ion Storm. There were a couple of carefully worded responses out there but considering the responses were just about as vague as the news we didnt really figure much out. Well here's the deal, broken down into little indents just because I feel like using them today.

- (Fairly Certain) Mark Dochterman and Ron Dimant formerly of Ritual and MumboJumbo (Myth3 guys) are being brought in to Ion Storm at the request of Eidos, to "evaluate" the situation at Ion. Possibly (?) Staying on with them.
- (Kinda Certain) Romero as of now is still at Ion Storm, what his position there is or will be is still up in the air.
- (Kinda Certain) Eidos has been rejecting recent design doc submissions.
- (Probably False) A vague rumor of Romero talking with Epic about a license outside of Ion came up but I couldnt track that one down.

What does all this mean? Not really sure. Is it true? Well I'll go ahead and put a disclaimer here that none of these details have been confirmed or made official and could all be false. However when I contacted parties involved in this they were quite a bit more tight lipped than usual.

The International Game Developers Association has published the list of nominees for the Game Developers Choice Awards, where the winners are picked by fellow developers. Among the nominees are the Counter-Strike team for The First Penguin Award (first game), John Carmack for Community Contribution and Deus Ex and No One Lives Forever in the list of Game of the Year nominees. The full list of nominees can be seen here. Thanks Stomped.

To continue the craziness today here is something for you guys. I've heard from a couple of reliable sources that John Romero's status at Ion Storm may be changing. It is not known what this could mean exactly, it could be anything from a simple changing of his official title at the company to him changing projects or him not being there completely. As of last night though I have confirmed that He was still in the offices at Ion Storm. I've attempted to contact people at Ion Storm and Eidos about this matter for a few hours since early this morning now but nobody wishes to confirm or deny this. Considering how tight lipped everyone is about this though and the fact that they wont deny it completely one can probably assume something is amiss. I'll keep you guys updated with anything that I can dig up. Here's the latest no comment I've gotten from an Eidos rep:

No, we don't confirm or discuss rumours. Frankly, we've heard so many now, we would put up our own rumour website - if only there was any money in it.

RPGVault has learned that the lead designer of Deus Ex, Bob White has announced that he is leaving Ion Storm Austin, and in fact the entire gaming industry.

I am leaving the game industry. It has little to do with Ion or others in the industry, but just a general dissatisfaction ...

Lead designer of one of hit games of 2000 doesnt like the industry? Bummer.

Something worth a little bit of holiday discussion that was just pointed out to me. A "Vow of Chastity" for game designers. (Thanks Eric, who I assume saw the link at /.) An article on Gamasutra which discusses how Hollywood degenerated from getting their impacts from dramatic performances by actors to just using special effects and explosions. They then draw a parallel to the gaming industry. The purpose of the article proposes a set of rules for game designers to try and follow forcing them to create original and fun games that dont fall back on just being a derivative of existing themes.

The game industry has become hugely, horribly derivative. There are far too many games on the shelves that play the same way, and there are far too many of them that are set in the same kinds of worlds. Dogma 2001 explicitly forbids certain kinds of games and certain kinds of worlds, forcing game designers to design new kinds of games and to set them in new places.

Will any existing large developers take the challenge? Probably not, but its still interesting damn it!

AVault has an interesting article talking about the state of the gaming media and how many websites are falling while the magazines dont seem to be suffering a fate quite as bad.

It's Thursday and we havent had any websites announcing they are closing up shop all week? For shame! Well EUniverse has just announced that they are closing their affiliate program. EUniverse owns GA-Source, and has affiliates such as 3DGPU and War3.com. Thanks to SwankyGames for the tip.

CNN has a story about the company Twin Galaxies which is looking for the world's greatest computer gamers for all games, genres and platforms to include them in the upcoming Twin Galaxies' Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records. This book will hold the highest set score for each game and will have a photo and bio on the player. How they are going to make sure everyone is the best like they claim to be, I don't know.

The book will focus mainly on the player, their scores, and their contests. "This book will pay tribute to the individuals who have worked so hard to tap their inner genius to rise to the top of the gaming hobby," says Emma Gal, Twin Galaxies' PR spokesperson. "We invite the entire gaming industry to aid in our search for these great champions. Our goal is to crown the champions of every game, every genre, and every platform, whether old or new. We would like the industry to unite, to help us identify these athletes and honor them, whether they be competing on head-to-head gameplay or for high-score achievement."

The book will have over 20 years of contest results from Tron championships to Quake, UT and Half-Life scores.

Generally a 'views type of thing but this is one of the best interviews I've seen in a while. Action Vault talks with CliffyB (Happy Birfdaye!) about the gaming industry. Good stuff:

We need to start by making our own franchises. At the same time we must understand where publishers are coming from and have patience with them. It is your job to convince the publisher that your original brand is better than the existing brand that they want to stick on your title. [snip] Great games stand on their own and sell regardless of existing brands.
[snip]
I've learned that the majority of talented people in this INDUSTRY are under-appreciated, underpaid, and screwed over on a regular basis. I'm in the process of recruiting some new talent and you know what I'm seeing? Talented guys who would rather starve a bit between freelance jobs because they've had nightmare experiences of working for corporations that treated them like dirt. This industry is steeped in self-ignorance and great developers are getting screwed out of hard earned money every day because of it.

We actually posted an interview with CliffyB here on Shack a while back, Cliffy has gotten better at interviews since then! update: I changed a word in that quote from 'company' to 'Industry' as requested by Cliffy. Misquotes suck.

The latest game sales top 20 list is up at Gameweek. Not a whole lot has changed, however Unreal Gold has shown up in the list, and it's easy to see why as it only costs $7. Counter-Strike has dropped to place 17 after number 12 last week.

Symantec has been granted two patents on technology that allows people to update software through internet downloads. Yes, the the process we all know as patching has been patented. Of course one would expect Symantec to be sueing game developers and publishers for royalties, but they have actually decided not to do this.

According to a statement issued by Symantec, the technology "may be also be used to update general computer readable files, which may include data files, program files, database files, graphics files, or audio files. As the patent holder, Symantec is the only company authorized to incorporate this sophisticated technology into its best-of-breed products."
In an interview with Reuters, Carey Nachenberg, a researcher at Symantec and the patent holder, said "We have no desire to proactively pursue litigation in regards to these patents."

Here is the description of the patent. Thanks Bucher Olivier.

The final days of Gamecenter and they have uncovered something pretty big. A document that is allegedly from the IDSA which includes some new very strict proposals on M-Rated PC and video games. The new restrictions would include how th games are advertised which could impact almost everywhere, including here.

- Print (including game publications): Ads for Mature-rated games may not be placed in magazines where 45 percent or more of the readers are under 17.
Analysis: By our count, there are only three magazines in the industry whose audience does not fit this profile.
- TV advertising: Ads for Mature-rated games may not be placed on programs where 35 percent or more of the viewers are under 17.
Analysis: By this definition, a game such as Resident Evil could not be advertised on MTV.
- Internet ads: Paid ads for M-rated games shall not be placed on Web sites where 45 percent or more of the visitors are under 17.
Analysis: The document states that Media Metrix data will be used to establish the demographic of Web site audiences. Considering how many fan sites are too small for Media Metrix to measure, this could make it impossible for any independent sites to secure advertising revenue.

Well isnt this something. A while back you guys might recall a story being ran about the US Surgeon General who according to the press was preparing to declare violent media responsible for currupting America's youth. Surprise! Contrary to the early reports our great General has declared the opposite.

The report’s conclusions defy the expectations of media observers, who had said in advance of its release that this would be a turning point in the debate over the effects of violent media. A widely distributed article in the Los Angeles Times had claimed the report would instead find that “repeated exposure to violent entertainment during early childhood causes more aggressive behaviour throughout the child’s life.”

You can read the stuff here.

A little while ago we broke the story here that Electronic Arts had dropped the Rogue Entertainment project leaving Rogue in pretty much of a jam. However according to an email from the Rogue CEO contrary to some rumors they have not closed up shop just yet. Here's the deal:

Due to EA's untimely cancelation of our latest project, rumors about Rogue Entertainment's current situation have begun to circulate.  We would like to assure everyone that we are still in business and still plan to continue making quality titles.  The timing of the cancelation did leave us "in a lurch", but due to the success of Rogue's current title Alice, as well as our many previous releases, we have several options available to us.  Once we have secured a title worthy of our team of highly skilled developers, we will inform the public.

Coincidentally, Rogue was working on a Playstation2 port of Alice, wonder why it got canned?

Here's one for the doomed before they begin deparment Self-proclaimed "first Gaming Internet Service Provider" NetGames UK, has announced that it will be rolling out a pay-per-play gaming service in the USA within the next eight weeks. "There is no comparable service to NGUK in the North American market, and with the gamers being more receptive to pay-per-play we feel our business model will be an resounding success".

Following up on companies turning 10 years old, shortly after id Software's 10 year anniversary comes Blizzard Entertainment. The Blizzard folks have posted a huge-ass retrospective of the company and their history

February 8th marks the tenth anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment. For the past five years, Blizzard has produced hit after hit, never selling less than two million copies of a game and never failing to garner at least a few Game of the Year awards from various industry experts. The Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises have combined sales of nearly fifteen million units over the past six years.

Blizzard is currently working on Warcraft3, a Diablo2 pack, and an unannounced FPS title.

For those of you following the game sales charts, here are the latest figures. Frogger is busting caps and staying at #1 while the mod you can download for free Counter-Strike is out there in the top20 too. This story is important because ON3SH0T got first post.

Gamespy has an interview with The Soule Brothers, two composers who have created music for games such as Giants, Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter and Total Annihilation.