I’m in NYC, what I consider ground zero for the current financial crisis. Bad banks, high unemployment, foreclosures, fraud, cash for clunkers, oh my! It’s a tough environment for an honest gamer. I just don’t get it. These are the same streets, the same people, but for some reason lots of people are in a bad mood. They’re worried about spending money, which only perpetuates the problem. The gaming industry is important for business. Excitement for new games drives console and computer sales. That puts people to work, which helps the economy. So let’s get excited! Let’s make life fun again! But of course, we’ll start slow. Here are some inexpensive game ideas for cost conscious consumers.
Continue reading “Five Video Game Gift Ideas For Poor Gamers… Or Just People On A Budget”
Things may be busy in Photics.com land, but I’m still taking some time out to spy on ArenaNet. They’re still quietly hiring more people. They’re no doubt working on Guild Wars 2. Yet, how close are they? The wall of silence that ArenaNet has built is not impenetrable. There are obvious weak points. Sometimes NCsoft, the parent company, releases information ahead of ArenaNet. But there is another source of information… retailers. This is where the money comes from and they require a heads up.
Some of you might be wondering, “Hey Mike… where have you been? Where are the site updates?” My mind has been elsewhere, trapped in the iPhone SDK. A lot has happened during the last two weeks. After a decade of being grumpy with Apple, I bought a Mac. It was required for developing iPhone apps. After my success with Android, I decided to try iPhone development. Yet, owning a Mac was far from the most difficult requirement.
Since this contest started, the Photics Team contributed 707037 points to Stanford University’s Folding@Home distributed computing project. The idea is that by using many computers collectively, the work gets done much faster than a single computer can do. The work – to better understand protein folding. This knowledge could lead to cures for diseases that are related to this matter. To encourage participation in this lofty endeavor, Photics.com has been hosting competitions for Photics: Team members. The results are now available.
I had read the legends of what it was like to develop for Apple’s iPhone / iPod touch. The word is that Apple’s program can be quite lucrative, but also quite strict. I wasn’t even in the program yet, but I already learning about how ridged the rules could be. I suppose it’s my fault. I did make the harder choice. I had the easy option of releasing programs as “Michael Garofalo” but I wanted “Photics” to be my developer name. Building a brand, especially with Apple, requires extra effort.