Fresh game development news from 67 sources.

I can't quite figure this site out. On the one hand, it seems to be trying to aggregate game development news blurbs from a variety of locations. However, I spot-checked for news about certain events I'm familiar with (such as E3, my "Hero's Journey" game, and MMORPGs in general), and the coverage was either spotty or nonexistent.

If nothing else, it looks like a good source of information for some news, even if it's not comprehensive.

gamedev.net

The symposium is presented every two years by the National Security Agency's Center for Cryptologic History (CCH). The historians of the CCH will be joined by historians from other branches of the U.S. government and from distinguished academic institutions in the U.S. and from abroad. The theme of this year's symposium will be "The Cold War and Cryptology." One entire day will be devoted to exploring VENONA, the American cryptologic effort that uncovered Soviet espionage efforts against the U.S. during World War II. Historians from NSA, the FBI, the Library of Congress, and several academic institutions will present new insights into this fascinating triumph of American cryptology, as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the declassification of VENONA documents.

The second day of the symposium will explore a variety of topics, including how Presidents Truman and Eisenhower viewed and used signals intelligence. We will also look at a number of other espionage cases that involved cryptology, and will gain the unique perspective of "hearing from the other side" as a Dutch historian discusses the perspective of Holland on one case, using recently declassified documents from the Netherlands. The less traditional side of historical research will also be represented, with a presentation from a professional game developer and a look into the cryptologic aspects of "From Russia with Love"

My own presentation will be on the second day, October 28 2005, at 1:45 p.m.:

Elonka Dunin
Professional Game Developer
"KRYPTOS and the Cyrillic Projector Ciphers"

This year the conference will be at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. I wonder if I'll get to tour anything interesting . . .

Elonka :)

NSA 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History

SEX is the official abbreviation of sodium ethyl xanthate, which is a flotation agent used in the mining industry. Apparently you can get SEX in both solid and liquid forms . . .

Lots of other fun ones on this page, too. Such as:

Dickite
Moronic Acid
Cummingtonite
Phthalic Acid

(Thanks to BillyGoto for the link to this one!)

Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names

At about the same time Turbine unplugs the servers and ceases all support of Asheron's Call 2, Turbine's West Coast operation will close as well.

Looks like Turbine is shutting down its Santa Monica office, and Asheron's Call 2, and moving everyone to Massachusetts. I haven't been able to find out the exact reasons for why AC2 is closing and AC1 is staying open though . . .

Asheron's Call 2 Will Shut Down in December 2005.

Rattle wrote:

This was a great year. I'd venture a guess that 80% of the time I had a smile plastered across my face. Everyone involved with running the convention did an amazing job. Everyone there was having a wonderful time. Everything I can think of to say about how things went this year does not do it justice.

Conventions such as these are uniquely beautiful events. A group of people comes together to share in some esoteric common purpose or goal. Time passes. At its end, the group ceases to exist and becomes a historical curiosity. In the case of a strong group, it develops a sort of ideology that lives on in the absence of the group's cohesion, allowing it to effortlessly rise from the dead in its next phase. It takes on a life of its own. A living thing that breathes art in and culture out.

In general, I highly enjoy people watching. I'm one of those folks that likes to be extremely attune to my surroundings. At a convention like DragonCon, I find this trait to reap great rewards. In every direction, there is some type of madness to take in. People in amazing costumes are everywhere. Cute girls are everywhere. Everyone is friendly. Conversations lite up like gas fires and everyone fire walks. Its impossible to be bored, the only risk is fatigue. There is no way to leave without feeling slightly sad.

Elonka Dunin, a game designer at Simutronics, invited fans to demo the company's latest MMORPG, Hero's Journey, in her hotel room . . .

Elonka is clearly our most famous MemeStreams user. Not only is her page among the most often hit here, but she is always popping up in the news. In addition to getting a demo of Hero's Journey, which I found to be extremely impressive, I attended her Kryptos talk. (again) I found it inspiring. (again) Next time she gives it I'll attend (again), and I'll keep doing it until she breaks the damn 4th part of the code. Hear that Elonka?! Quit playing those video games and hack the CIA's cafeteria courtyard! I'm going to keep "encouraging" you... :)

Awwww, thanks Rattle. :)

RE: Dragon*Con Review

Somewhere upward of 20,000 fans descend on Atlanta for this event every year, filling three massive hotels to share everything from their comic-book collections and home-brewed Lord of the Rings fan fiction to gigantic Transformer costumes they've spent months creating for the Masquerade Ball contest.
 . . .
Elonka Dunin, a game designer at Simutronics, invited fans to demo the company's latest MMORPG, Hero's Journey, in her hotel room. A monster-fighting quest set in a lush, expansive fantasy world of vulnerable villages and devious conspiracies, the game is perfectly targeted for the DragonCon crowd. "This isn't just hack-and-slash," Dunin said as she set up her avatar to cast a spell. "There are creative ways to deal with combat, and a lot of chances to create stories for your characters."

Nice article about the Dragon*Con scene from Annalee Newitz, who along with being a writer and editor for Wired, is also a policy analyst at the EFF.

As for my own Dragon*Con experiences, I had a blast this year. I'm still a bit sleep-deprived, having just gotten back to St. Louis from the 10-hour Atlanta drive, around 1 a.m. last night. I was *really* busy this year, speaking at or participating in about eight different panels, and also giving private demos of my company's upcoming game "Hero's Journey" out of my hotel room. Dragon*Con is *so* huge though -- though I was in one of the convention hotels, it was still a half-mile walk from my hotel to the Electronics track! And I was going back and forth multiple times per day to do all the demos. But in between panels and demos I also found plenty of time to visit various parties, and I met a lot of really fun and interesting people, as well as getting to hang out with friends from previous conventions. I especially enjoyed the Hacking panels this year, hanging out with various representatives of the yak.net and Memestreams communities, getting to talk cryptography into the wee hours of the night, and many other conversations I had with really fascinating people. And of course since I was a speaker, I also got to hang out in the "Green Room" and rub elbows with assorted authors and movie and TV stars, such as several members of the Star Trek cast (I never knew that Max Grodenchik, who plays the Ferengi "Rom" on Deep Space Nine, is a very talented singer!). I also really enjoy the Dragon*Con nightly drum circle, with all the creative percussion instruments that people bring, and all the dancers in the middle, ranging in clothing from T-shirts to belly-dancer outfits, to costumes for which the word "skimpy" wouldn't even come close to describing how little was there!

Great fun!

Update: I heard from a D*Con staffer, that it was the biggest convention ever. Over 26,000 attendees, and the charity drives raised over $100,000 for the Katrina relief effort!

Dragon*Con Review

The metro Atlanta region generally has about a 10-day supply of gasoline in inventory, said BP spokesman Michael Kumpf. The pipelines have been down for two days.
Alpharetta, Ga.-based Colonial Pipeline Co., cut off from its suppliers on the Gulf Coast, is now pumping gas from huge storage tanks, many in Powder Springs, Ga. Whether electric power can be restored to the pipeline pumps before supplies run out is "the great uncertainty ... that hangs over all of us," said Daniel Moenter, a spokesman for Marathon Ashland Petroleum, a major supplier of metro Atlanta's fuel.

I'm getting ready to drive to Atlanta from St. Louis tomorrow, since Dragon*Con is this weekend. I'll make sure to fill up my tank again, before I get into the city! If any locals have advice about the best place (last place?) to refill along the way in northern Georgia, please let me know.

Elonka

RE: Atlanta may run out of gas.

A is for awk, which runs like a snail, and B is for biff, which reads all your mail. C is for cc, as hackers recall, while D is for dd, the command that does all. E is for emacs, which rebinds your keys, and F is for fsck, which rebuilds your trees. G is for grep, a clever detective, while H is for halt, which may seem defective. I is for indent, which rarely amuses, and J is for join, which nobody uses. K is for kill, which makes you the boss, while L is for lex, which is missing from DOS.

An *awesome* page full of tech-songs. Another one I really enjoyed:

100 buckets of bits on the bus 100 buckets of bits Take one down, short it to ground FF buckets of bits on the bus FF buckets of bits on the bus FF buckets of bits Take one down, short it to ground FE buckets of bits on the bus ad infinitum . . .

Elonka :)

Songs and Poems - 'The ABCs of Unix'

Gary Warzin Age 56, of Indianapolis, passed away Saturday, August 27th, 2005. Gary was preceded in death by his parents Charles and Anne (Valentine) Warzin of Geneva, Ohio. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Julie; daughter Tracie, son-in law Jarrod Bunce, and two grandchildren, Jaden and Dawson of Noblesville. Gary Warzin was the founder and CEO of Audiophile Systems, Ltd. of Indianapolis, Indiana. He was a cum laude graduate of Purdue University, majoring in Industrial Management. Interests included electronics, bicycling, attempting to solve the Kryptos Code, and collecting Japanese arcade games. Gary was also a 30-year member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians. Gary served as Chair of the Audio Division of the Consumer Electronic Association. He was also on the PARA Manufacturer's Advisory Council. Friends may call at the Flanner Buchanan Funeral Center-Broad Ripple on Tuesday, August 30, 2005 from 4 p.m. until the time of the service at 5 p.m. Memorial contributions may be made to American Heart Association. www.flannerbuchanan.com

Gary and I were co-founders and moderators of the Kryptos discussion group. I just heard about his death this evening, and then immediately called his home and spoke with his daughter Tracie. Though she and her mother did not share Gary's passion for cryptography, they both recognized that it was an important part of his life -- so much so that they even mentioned Kryptos in his obituary! "Interests included electronics, bicycling, attempting to solve the Kryptos Code, and collecting Japanese arcade games."

I first met Gary face-to-face in Fall 2003, when he and I attended the NSA Crypto Symposium in DC. We also had the opportunity there to meet both Kryptos Sculptor James Sanborn, and Cryptographer Ed Scheidt.

Though I usually list Gary and myself as "co-founders" of the Kryptos Group, it was really his idea. Gary was one of the people who first wrote to me about my website back in early 2003, and it was during correspondence with him, that I was inspired to come up with my own alternative solution for Part 3 of the sculpture. Gary's hard work on the puzzle seriously impressed me, especially the way that he would take the time to write his work up into formal easy-to-read papers. I didn't agree with all of his conclusions, but he was always an inspiring and motivating force, and he will be missed.

Elonka

Gary Warzin - Obituary

The Alter Ego display shows what kind of virtual characters people choose to be in online games and 3D worlds.

This is an article about an exhibit which juxtaposed pictures of "real-life" people, next to images of the characters that they played in MMORPGs. Click on the picture in the article, to be taken to more side-by-side images. I found it very interesting to observe how some people were very different from their avatars, and others were very similar. Though of course the editors seemed to concentrate on the images that provided the most dramatic differences.

BBC NEWS : Virtual gamers reveal themselves