Duralux for Durabux
Guest
Slightly better than abysmal is still not that good.
They're not, but right now they're the only studio that continue to do what LGS did as well as keeping their design philosophy alive, with more or less success.Stop acting like Arkane is as good as Looking Glass. They're not in the same league as Looking Glass.
Predicting the future. Not.
So as I'm sure you've noticed (if you pay any attention at all!), I haven't blogged in a while (okay a LONG while). No excuse other than laziness. And I've been taking a break from social media since January so I don't really know what's going on there these days. However, recently I've had people getting in touch with me telling me there are people talking about Deus Ex again. Twenty years after we shipped (almost exactly 20 years, to the day, actually). It blows my mind. But there it is.
What people are telling me is that other people are saying we predicted the future (again), what with the parallels between the Gray Death in the game and the current Covid-19 situation. Also, apparently, Elon Musk has changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of JC Denton. I figured I might as well tell everyone reading this what I've been telling the people who've gotten in touch with me about both of those things. Don't expect too much - neither I nor the team are psychics, at least as far as I know. But here's what I have to say anyway.
As far as Deus Ex goes, well, to tell you the truth. I’m as freaked out about the parallels between the real world and the game as other folks. First it was the New York skyline without the World Trade Center and now the Gray Death virus.
In reality, I think we just got “lucky.”Having said that, everything in the game was, by design, based on something real or something that some subset of the people believed to be true. Everyone on the team worked exceptionally hard to live up to that standard. We even got blueprints for various locations and looked to the news as well as doing a ton of research on pre-Y2K conspiracy theories. Looking around back in the 1997-2000 period, such theories were all around us (much like today) and it didn’t take much gray matter (as it were) to extrapolate where we might be in the future.
As far as the Gray Death itself goes, as I said, I'm kind of freaked out. I mean a disease that starts with a cough and inflicts flu-like symptoms... You have to admit that hits a little close to home. But before I get all the credit for that - or blame for propagating conspiracy theories about the creation of the virus in the lab and the withholding of a known treatment to influence the rich and powerful and, maybe, cause riots in the streets to wreak general havoc, I have to give credit to others: Most notable in the deserving-of-credit sweepstakes are Lead Writer, Sheldon Pacotti and, really, the entire design team, led by Harvey Smith. I often get the kudos for creating the Deus Ex game, as if it poured fully formed from my fevered brow when, in fact, it was very much a team effort. I'll take credit for initiating the project and laying down some ground-rules that drove the game it ended up being, but the "real work" was done by one of the best teams I've ever been privileged to work with.
And then there's Elon Musk thing, which is just bizarre. I guess he's a fan of Deus Ex. At the very least he knows enough about it to want to associate himself with it on Twitter. But beyond that, I can't comment - and before anyone goes crazy, it's not because of any conspiracy. It's simply that I've never communicated with the man and have no idea what to make of his knowledge or apparent enthusiasm for the game! I kind of wish he’d contact me just to let me know what's up with that. Kinda sort of.
Now, let's all hope none of the other "predictions" in Deus Ex become reality. We're going through enough right now that I don't want to see anything else come true. For now, have fun and stay safe!
Most notable in the deserving-of-credit sweepstakes...
Registrant Org: Tencent Holdings Limited
Congrats, guys. Your greed is making the game industry worse for everyone.Probably they want to leverage Warren and Paul's networks, to expand their presence in southern and eastern parts of the US.
L-l-l-l-l-look at you, gweilo. A pa-pa-pathetic creature of liberty and greed. (panting and) Panting and sweating as you r-r-run through our glorious corridors. How can you challenge a perfect People's Republic?
im pretty sure this guy didnt have anything to do with any of the actual good stuff in deus ex or any of those other old games that everyone loves.Huh, Warren Spector casually wrote a post on his Gamasutra blog early this week. It's about the recent fuss about "Deus Ex predicted the future!!11!", and nothing about the situation of SS3 or Otherside.
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/WarrenSpector/20200504/362273/Predicting_the_future_Not.php
Predicting the future. Not.
So as I'm sure you've noticed (if you pay any attention at all!), I haven't blogged in a while (okay a LONG while). No excuse other than laziness. And I've been taking a break from social media since January so I don't really know what's going on there these days. However, recently I've had people getting in touch with me telling me there are people talking about Deus Ex again. Twenty years after we shipped (almost exactly 20 years, to the day, actually). It blows my mind. But there it is.
What people are telling me is that other people are saying we predicted the future (again), what with the parallels between the Gray Death in the game and the current Covid-19 situation. Also, apparently, Elon Musk has changed his Twitter avatar to a picture of JC Denton. I figured I might as well tell everyone reading this what I've been telling the people who've gotten in touch with me about both of those things. Don't expect too much - neither I nor the team are psychics, at least as far as I know. But here's what I have to say anyway.
As far as Deus Ex goes, well, to tell you the truth. I’m as freaked out about the parallels between the real world and the game as other folks. First it was the New York skyline without the World Trade Center and now the Gray Death virus.
In reality, I think we just got “lucky.”Having said that, everything in the game was, by design, based on something real or something that some subset of the people believed to be true. Everyone on the team worked exceptionally hard to live up to that standard. We even got blueprints for various locations and looked to the news as well as doing a ton of research on pre-Y2K conspiracy theories. Looking around back in the 1997-2000 period, such theories were all around us (much like today) and it didn’t take much gray matter (as it were) to extrapolate where we might be in the future.
As far as the Gray Death itself goes, as I said, I'm kind of freaked out. I mean a disease that starts with a cough and inflicts flu-like symptoms... You have to admit that hits a little close to home. But before I get all the credit for that - or blame for propagating conspiracy theories about the creation of the virus in the lab and the withholding of a known treatment to influence the rich and powerful and, maybe, cause riots in the streets to wreak general havoc, I have to give credit to others: Most notable in the deserving-of-credit sweepstakes are Lead Writer, Sheldon Pacotti and, really, the entire design team, led by Harvey Smith. I often get the kudos for creating the Deus Ex game, as if it poured fully formed from my fevered brow when, in fact, it was very much a team effort. I'll take credit for initiating the project and laying down some ground-rules that drove the game it ended up being, but the "real work" was done by one of the best teams I've ever been privileged to work with.
And then there's Elon Musk thing, which is just bizarre. I guess he's a fan of Deus Ex. At the very least he knows enough about it to want to associate himself with it on Twitter. But beyond that, I can't comment - and before anyone goes crazy, it's not because of any conspiracy. It's simply that I've never communicated with the man and have no idea what to make of his knowledge or apparent enthusiasm for the game! I kind of wish he’d contact me just to let me know what's up with that. Kinda sort of.
Now, let's all hope none of the other "predictions" in Deus Ex become reality. We're going through enough right now that I don't want to see anything else come true. For now, have fun and stay safe!
Tencent is starting a AAA studio in North America
EA and Ubisoft veteran Scott Warner will be studio director for Tencent's first AAA operation in the US
Tencent is setting up a new AAA studio in North America, bringing in veteran developer Scott Warner to lead the operation.
Warner has an impressive track record in AAA: he was design director on Halo 4 at 343 Industries, game director on Battlefield Hardline at EA Visceral, and was most recently game director for Ubisoft in the San Francisco Bay Area.
"I am moving on to a new role," Warner said, announcing his departure from Ubisoft on Twitter. "I'll be the studio director of a new AAA operation in North America for Tencent."
The location of the new studio has not yet been decided, with Warner stating that it "might be Seattle, might be Los Angeles."
Tencent is the biggest games publisher in the world by revenue, but its growth outside of China has largely been fuelled by acquisitions -- Supercell and Riot Games, for example.
This move is one of Tencent's first attempts to start an internal AAA studio from scratch.
http://whois.domaintools.com/systemshock3.com
Registrant Org: Tencent Holdings Limited
This domain was originally redirected to Otherside website, now it does not lead to anywhere. The domain info was updated on last month, before the previous expiration date (May), so it's not like Tecent snatched an expired domain or something.