Rachel, also known as Athora, is a lovely and dedicated Lara Croft cosplayer. In her interview she talks about conventions, cosplaying tips, and photoshoots. Photography by Darren Rowley Photography DRP
The latest issue of the French Consoles Magazine has revealed more information on the upcoming Tomb Raider game as well as showing new screenshots. The magazine has 9 pages dedicated to the heroine as well as having her on the cover and a render on the editorial page. The magazine is out now, so if you can make sure to get a copy of it, it looks pretty awesome.
The adventure is divided into 3 big "episodes", each one corresponding to a part of Lara's transformation into an adventurer : survive, rescue, run away.
The article insists on the fact that the game engine uses the laws of gravity, of centrifugal force... To allow Lara to go through her obstacles.
The transition between cinematics and game is almost invisible.
The grief of Lara is accentuated by some effects like close-to-face cameras, on-screen blur (flou, in french)
Lara's changing through the game. She will evolve from a young inexperienced woman to an adventurer. It will be apparent on her equipment (the article says that it might be possible to see her double pistols back), for example.
The "survival instinct" which makes some elements of the world shine to help the player cans only be used when Lara doesn't move.
There are many ways to solve puzzles, and sometimes you have to try again and again as laws of physics are random.
Buddha statues are visible through the game... Although they think these are save points, their exact role is unknown for now.
Some elements of the world fall when Lara stand too long on them.
For those who can't, there are scans of the magazine available. I haven't been able to find a translation for the article. It would be pretty cool if anyone who can translate it would be willing to help :)
Lara Croft is becoming one of the most popular topics to talk about in gaming magazines. Not only has she already had a huge feature dedicated to her in the Game Informer Magazine and more recently in Hobby Consolas, as well as smaller features in magazines like GamesMaster, 360, and Play, but she is due to be the main focus on three big magazines due to be released in the not too distant future.
Edge Magazine - UK - 10th May Yay! Tomb Raider coverage in the UK! So far the cover hasn't been revealed but I presume it will be soon. The magazine is out in stores Tuesday 10th May for £4.50. W.H Smiths normally sells this magazine as well as many others stores. I'll post a reminder closer to the date.
Today the Hobby Consolas magazine, that we have all been interested to see, is now available in stores in Spain for 2.99 Euros. Like with the Game Informer magazine, if you don't live in the country, there's not a lot you can do. And because of this I'll try to get some copies of Edge Magazine in the UK on May 10th to give away as competition prizes. However if you live outside of Spain, there are scans of Hobby Consolas available online as well as a translation (scroll down to see the translation). The article is pretty cool, it does pose some questions.
Quickly, I just wanted to quickly mention something about the site that I have been planning. There's been a few special projects I've been working on in the background involving Tomb Raider. One I can't mention right now due to it not being exactly in my hands currently, it's the thing I teased about on twitter but it's taking a lot longer to organize. The second is going to be on the site late Friday night, and it's going to be weekly feature, but it's pretty cool so it's worth a look. It will be useful if you want to keep up to date with Tomb Raider news but is busy.
Translation of the magazine byna_th_an (Tomb Raider Forums) : Forget about the perfect athlete with impossible anatomy. This Lara Croft is human, she bleeds and suffers a whole lot. But she's decided to fight for survival. The brand new Tomb Raider will be released for PS3 and 360 in a yet to be announced date but, until it arrives, we can tell you about all the details in this EPIC adventure. GET USED to see fear and pain in Lara's face. Her expresions and even the camera movements have been generated using motion capture. Chest: Ninety-Five, Waist: Fifty-five, Hips: Eighty Five. Those were Lara's "official" measures when the classic Tomb Raider was released in 1996. By then, that adventure astonished PlayStation and Saturn users because of its open nature, its well-measured mixture of puzzles, shooting and platforming... but mainly because of the main character: she was an aristocrat, with an awesome body, she spoke several languages and you can bet that Jackie Chan would like to share some of her ability to perform acrobatics. The arrival of such a character was a revolution in a scene which was used to nice jumping plumbers or supersonic hedgehogs. But years have passed and the sensation of wear-off, of abusing the formula "hot girl with guns" has become quite evident. The guys at Eidos, responsible of the franchise, have tried several makeovers: making a more sinister Lara, using flashbacks to show her first adventures... But now they have decided to renew from bottom up. The main story, development and even the main character will re-start from scratch in the next game, which will be called just Tomb Raider. WE HAVE TRAVELLED TO SAN FRANCISCO, to the headquarters of Crystal Dynamics, creators of this new adventure. Just about a dozen of journalists from all over the world were allowed to witness, in the most absolute secrecy, the details of the new title. Karl Stewart, the franchise's director, took us on a trip around the studios and told us about their intentions. "As time went by, Lara was becoming a cartoon, somebody too unrealistic. The one we are crafting right now is human, more vulnerable", he taught us. "She's going to suffer from terrible wounds, both physical and emotional". To break up completely with the old games, the new Lara Croft is just a teenage just out of the University. Her academic past has made her become a rational and analitic young lady, but with a passion for adventure and archeology. On her first expedition, she enroles in a ship called Endurance, which sinks next to an island close to the coast of Japan. From among all the crew in the ship, only she seems to have survived. ¿Didn't you want action, Lara? ¡Have two cups! THE FIRST MISSION we could witness, in fact, couldn't be more perplexing: After the shipwreck, Lara wakes up tied up and hanging upside down in a dark cave, having no idea about how she got to that situation. The first thing is getting out of there. The solution to this task already shows the new spirit of this game: to release her from her captivity: we have to hurt Lara. Making her swing, we have to make her approach a torch to put her on fire. That way, her ties will burn and she will be released, but at the same time she gets burn as well. You see: you have to make her have a bad time to get out of the situation. But the problems haven't ended. Just after getting released, Lara falls over a bar of iron which punctures her in her side. With the face deformed by the pain, the young girl has to put it out rudely. We help her pressing a button as quickly as possible, in one of the common activities in this game: quick time events. While we are looking for an exit to the game we find an intriguing altar... HELPING HANDS and the game interface will be kept to a minimum, even though the game will show which can be burnt or which buttons to press in Quicktime events. ... which makes something clear: there's somebody else in the island and doesn't seem to have good intentions. Everything points that Lara was going to be part of some kind of ritual by somebody whose noises can be heard from the deepest end of the cave... PUZZLES have the main role in the next section. We have to use ramps, the water current or a rudimentary lift to carry some boxes set in fire to a small magazine and make it explode, which leaves a clear path to advance... but also causes the cave to collapse. Desperate while land and stones fall all around her, Lara tries to find a hole to escape. There it is, a little hole upwards shows light from the outside. In this moment a distressing quicktime event begins, in which we have to press the right buttons for Lara to get to salvation. While we keep advancing, the screens gets filled with mud to the point we can barely see anything, the music goes crescendo and Lara shouts agonicly until we... get out of the cave! Then, the gasping heroine looks at the landscape which unfolds in front of her: a huge island plagued with wrecked ships and lush jungles. Now the true adventure begins. THE MAIN GAMEPLAY wants to break away from a fixed system of levels as found in the previous installments of the franchise. We will always be on the island, but from the mian hub we able to climb, jump or investigate to find new areas. Then, will this game be some kind of sand box? "This isn't a Grand Theft Auto or an Assassin's Creed of sorts", makes clear Stewart, "but we want to suggest the idea that Lara is in an open environment". In fact, at the beginning of the adventure, Lara will have little abilities and, therefore, we won't be able to advance in most directions, but step by step we will be gathering tools and enhacing Lara's abilities so there will be more to explore. To make us aquainted to the new location, Karl show us another mission: several days after what we just seen, Lara finds Conrad Roth alive. Conrad Roth is the expedition leader, and is considered some kind of a menthor by Lara ... THE CENTRAL area in the island will serve as the main headquarters. In the main camp [up] we'll be able to "buy" abilities, make new tools or get back to missions we have already finished. The remaining of this area will be used to climb or search for new missions. "- I can't bear this - I'm not that kind of Croft. - Yes, you are, but you just haven't found out!" Roth cheers up Lara. ... Roth is an old dog who ain't afraid of challenge. He's always up to a new adventure. He has been left wounded after a fight with a group of wolves, so he commands Lara to go finding a med-kit and a transmitter he lost in a nearby cave. To get to that new zone, Lara has to make good use of her abilities. First we have to do some jumping.This time our heroine won't just "stick" magically to the closest ledge, but we'll have to maneuver while she's jumping. Althought it may seem more complicated than in previous installments, this will serve us well to modify our trajectory mid-jump to reach other zones. THE SURVIVAL INSTICT will be other trick under Ms. Croft's sleeve. By pressing a button we'll activate a special view which will put a different colour to "interesting" elements in the environment: the background and non relevant objects will be shown in shades of grey and the clues in yellow. That way we'll be able to follow traces normally invisible to the eye, for example the footprints of the wolves which will lead us to where they have left the med-kit. When we reach that zone, one of those animals attacks us. This time Lara isn't that super-archeologist who can kill ... PUZZLES will be more complex than in previous installments. They won't be just about observing the environment, but about thinking about how water and fire interact, the importance of gravity, explosives... THE CAMERA will use innovative framings to add to the sensations of anguish or claustrophobia. To its aid, a renewed graphic engine Crystal Engine, used in TR Legend. "I'm so sorry, but this was a mere matter of survival: it was either you or me" Lara apologizes at the first wolf she kills ... dinosaurs without loosing her hairdo, so the fight with the wolf is dirty and violent. Lara, terrified, finishes her adversary with a stroke of luck. That duel is also resolved using quicktime events, but Karl has told us that we'll also have "common" fights and shooting scenes, in which we'll have to aim ourselves. For the moment, only a few weapons have been officially confirmed: a bow and arrows, a pistol, and a pick we'll be able to use to climb and defend ourselves. As we advance in the game we'll discover new weapons and possibilities for the girl. LARA WILL LEARN step by step and that will show in her emotions. It's somewhat shoking to witness how the yesteryear's unbreakable Lara is now just a girl which shows terror and doubt about what's to come and even sometimes talks to herself to convince herself that's she'll be able to keep advancing. She get's afraid, looks around, touches the walls to lean on... "Yesteryear's Lara didn't seem to care about what..." ROTH is this old adventurer. He'll we some kind of a menthor for Lara, but she'll have to help him as well to get away from this one! nfluences: Many games have been taken as an influence in different degrees during the conception of this new Tomb Raider: Physics from Half Life 2 - The usage of gravity or water currents was already explored in this classic game. Here such concepts will be put to use with boxes and barrels. Athmosphere of Uncharted - Nathan's soliloquies will be "imited" by Lara, as well as the extreme situations for the main character. The "vision" of Assassin's Creed - Ezio's Eagle Sight isolates different objectives using colours. Lara will be able of something simmilar using her Instinct of Survival. The Origins of Batman Begins - The first act in the film showed the hard path of Bruth Wayne to become Batman. That "hero's journey" will guide the first steps of Lara. The suffering of 127 Hours - In that movie, the main character has to punish his body so hard to survive. The most famous scene in the film inspired the guys at Crystal Dynamics to force Lara's resistance to the limit. The mysteries of Lost - Extrange wrecked ships? An island long lost in the middle of the sea and full of mysteries? The influences of the plot of Lost has been aknowledged by the developers. Will there be polar bears? "... happened around her, but now we want to make believable the fact that she's in the world, and that she connects with it", says Karl.
THE PROJECT IS AMBITIOUS AND RISKY. It's still in a very early stage of development, but it's clear that it's a superproduction, with the goal of putting Lara again in the Throne of videogames (if this title is successful, more will come in which Lara will get even more mature). We'll finish the article with a little story. From among the journalists invited to the event, a nice Russian chap asked: "if the old Lara would meet the new version, what would she tell her?". Karl, quite suprised, smiled and answered "most likely she would just tell her"you will become a legend"". We can't wait to accompany her in this transformation.
If you read Game Informer then you probably have heard of Meagan Marie. Minutes ago it was announced that she is leaving her job at the company and moving to California to work at Crystal Dynamics as our new Community and Communications Manager.
Welcome to the Tomb Raider Community Meagan :)
She posted on her blog:
As community manager I’ll be involved in many facets of social media and act as a liaison between the studio and various communities throughout the world. I’ll be a public face at the studio and will be attending events worldwide, giving demos, helping to execute short and long-term media strategies, and more. I’m stoked for the challenge and very excited to join the Crystal Dynamics team.
Eight teams of employees at Square Enix Europe/ Eidos are taking part in the Trailwalker UK 2011 Event to raise money for charity. All of them will be walking 100km from Petersfield to Brighton in under 30 hours. The walk takes place on the 16th July, and the money raised through sponsership goes to both Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. You can sponser them through their Virgin Money Giving page and all the money donated will go straight to the charities.
The Trailwalker is an annual event taking place in the UK, teams walk 100km continuously which takes on average 24 to 26 hours. This is all to raise money for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust. Oxfam helps people rebuild their lives who are living in poverty, their work involves emergency response, developments in countries and campaigns. The Gurkha Welfare Trust helps relieves poverty and distress among Gurkha ex-servicemen and their families.
It's a great event, and good luck to the teams at Square Enix Europe/Eidos who are taking part, you're awesome!
If you want to donate and sponsor the team, CLICK HERE.
The gallery will be down for the next four hours due to essential maintenance carried out in a professional manner...and by "essential maintenance carried out in a professional manner" I mean that there will be lots and lots of possible swearing at screens filled with HTML and then Google Chrome, and possibly a nerf gun war with the monitor in about an hour.
Nevertheless by the end there will be brand new albums and also a new ordering system and hopefully it will shiny, new and easier to use. Also this way it will be quicker to upload photos so there will be more updates.
It's 2:26 in the morning in the UK currently, let's see if I can get this up to you all by 6:30!
In the magazine I did for the site, last November, I wrote a short article about motion capture in Tomb Raider. Last month I had the chance to attend a motion capture session that the British Museum and Goldsmiths University held.
Motion capture is recording the actions of someone using sensors. The actors or actresses are put into an outfit with several retroreflective markers which bounce infer red light which is then picked up by a series of cameras placed around the area. The cameras then send the information to the computer which then makes a 3D image of the person move.
The T pose start position I had to do for 15 minutes, because I accidently broke everything.
I travelled to the British Museum in London to take part in a motion capture session, which lasted two hours. Even though this wasn't an extensive full look into motion capture it did give me a little taster about the mechanics behind it. I became interested in motion capture when I was playing Tomb Raider Underworld, Lara's movements were very real, and I wanted to learn more about how they were able to capture everything to add more realism to the protagonist.
I arrived there forty minutes early with my friend and since Starbucks is across the street, we decided to have some coffee, which I consider to be the best but also the worst decision I made that day. Firstly I love Starbucks and this leads me to buy expensive beverages filled with caffeine, which I strongly approve of...besides the really expensive part. The only problem I had was that some of my family once worked at the museum, and I was trying to tone down the weirdness. Weirdness is good, but I don't think that explaining why Alan Wake would have been even more scarier with squirrels instead of birds would have been classed as sane at the museum and I slightly feared that they would end up carrying me out on a handmade stretcher, similar to how they transport the Egyptian mummies through the departments.
We entered the museum twenty minutes before the session and decided to go and see the Rosetta stone. Doing work experience here had a benefit, not only is it one of the most gorgeous museums in London. I mean just look at this view, I had to pass this every day:
Well I'm bored just looking at it. This is the right side of the Great Court at the British Museum, I took this photo from the balcony.
But after it's closed to the public you can see all the artifacts that you couldn't see before. The Rosetta stone is the most popular artifact there, Eygpt once asked for it back but the museum refused mainly because it's awesome and without it they would lose a lot of visitors. The crowd reminded me of the zombies out of the DeadRising games and therefore we decided to take refuge underneath the Great Court area where the talks were taking place. (If you're ever at the Museum, go to the Rosetta Stone, you will know exactly what I mean!)
The session began with the instructors going through the basics of motion capture and they explained that they used it for films such as AVATAR and Beowolf, and video games like Uncharted, before showing us the the suit. The suit that the actor wore consisted of a hat, jacket, and trousers all with the little reflected markers which were connected with Velcro and easily detachable. The area itself was no bigger then a few metres but there was markers on the ground so you know how far you could go. There were eight cameras in the room in fixed points on the ceiling. If you are camera shy, being in the suit and having your motions captured probably wouldn't have been easy, all the cameras pointed at you and there were two huge screens showing what you're currently doing and during my session there were photographs being taken. Normally I am, but I really wanted to do the motion capturing. One screen had a 3D person walking around on a grid, whereas the other showed the character, that would be the final product.
I'm not sure if he's punching the creature or pointing...Nevertheless it was a pretty cool talk.
We were placed into groups of two and threes, and sent out of the room after choosing from four different characters and backgrounds we wanted. We then had to come up with a two minute story which our character star in. One group did a romantic story, another did a horror story, and I was filled with caffeine... Starbucks was perhaps my worst decision of the day. Me and my friend decided that the knight (which was the character we had chosen) after returning from battle would do a victory dance, and understandably we received very strange looks from the group that was trying to do the horror story. I then lost a bet with my friend and had to be placed into the tight mo-cap suit, I didn't mind all that much to be honest. Before recording, we had to show that we were ready, to a complete stranger, so I had to dance...for two minutes without a break.
I was also wearing a t-shirt that had an angry cupcake on it saying "Cupcake of Doom, recoil in fear from my evil butter cream centered filling." that combined with the coffee pretty much ended my goal to appear sane.
After I blamed the coffee and the everyone agreed. We were then lead into the small room in which I had to put on the motion capture suit which was hard work considering that the 2 minute dance had absolutely tired me out (it was very early on a weekend). The motion capture suit is extremely hard to take on and off, mainly because everyone put it over their clothes and that day I was wearing jeans underneath, and pretty much all you could see was the 3d model hop around the screen backwards looking very confused as I tried to put everything on. The main difficulty wasn't because it was tight, because it wasn't that much, it was being very careful not to knock or drop any of the sensors.
It was also an incredibly fiddly suit, it had gloves to go over the hands. I had difficulty just with the hat let alone the entire suit. Plus my hair had to be placed in a bun because it would cover some of the sensors otherwise.
I was the first person to use the mo-cap since everyone was afraid of breaking it and we were ready first and directly after getting into the suit, I broke everything. At the start I had to preform the T pose for at least twenty minutes while the computer recognized me and a further fifteen jumping around the area making sure that one of the reflectors worked. Unlike the Lara Croft motion capture actresses, I was working with 2D so if I went sideways I would be flat, which was a little strange and took a while to get used to.
This was the area where I did the motion capturing. The photograph was during the 35 minutes where I broke everything. Although it wasn't so bad because I got to watch the little 3D character which was pretty awesome. I believe this was near the end when I decided that the best way to get the computer to recognize me was to act like a zombie...I actually wish I was kidding.
When we were able to record, the coffee kicked back in and the character ended up exploding randomly at the end since I accidently stepped outside of the lines. The screen of the final product with the 2D character didn't interest me as much as the one on the right. On the right was a huge monitor which was operated by two computers, that screen showed exactly my actions on a 3D model which was awesome but also kind of off putting when you're doing the recording.
My little 3D character on the screen. It's not showing my actions as clearly as it was when I was moving around since this was near the start when the limbs decided to migrate to opposite corners of the screen, but I have my hands on my hips. The levitating cubes on the screen are the cameras located in the room.
Afterwards we edited the movie on the computer, added a storyline, music, and text, and then exporting it using an Adobe product (which name currently alludes me EDIT: Adobe Premiere Pro) I then also did an interview saying what we done and how was it like in the motion capture suit (I'll try to find it if it's online)
Thanks to everyone at the Samsung Digital Discovery Center for doing the session, I had a really awesome time, and it was a topic that I had an interest in for a while but I didn't really have a chance to do motion capture before this. So thank you for setting up the cameras and being really awesome.
Here's a photo of me:
DID YOU KNOW? For the movements of Lara Croft alone they had to bring in three different people to do the movements. Chrissy Weathersby Ball, Heidi Moneymaker and Dana Reed
To emphasize video game addiction, the show used a series of tabloid articles and showed the impact of video games on some people's lives. Here is what Panorama did wrong:
11. BOOT CAMP FOR GAMERS
I know of these kind of boot camps, I also know that the BBC didn't show everything. They showed a group of teenagers on a beach in the sun being given instructions by a teacher and later they played in the sea, relaxing isn't it? Yeah, that's not the truth at least for some video game bootcamps....
Boy's section of the Video Game Boot Camp
It's funny that you didn't include these clips in your show, Panorama. This is actually a true photograph of the video game boot camp. Why would you even put your child through this? It's like some kind of medieval torture. I would have actually tried to escape the camp as soon as I got there. This doesn't help your child, it puts them into a state of paranoia and scares them into declipline. If parents are the ones sending them to this and making them go through all this pain of the challenges, who do they think the child can rely on? Because the child can't rely on their parents...This can actually effect the child psychologically, much more then video games can ever do.
12. NOT VIDEO GAMES IT'S BAD PARENTING
I'm going to hand it over to Wil Wheaton for a moment in an interview at PAX. I must say before you watch it, he's a father, he has two sons and even though he is talking about violence in video games it relates back to our topic too:
The program is eager to say there is a problem, but then blames it on the gaming industry. The video game industry should not carry the burden of raising your child and it shouldn't have to be blamed whenever the topic of video game addiction or violence is raised. Video games are there for fun, and the problem with the people being interviewed is that the parents obviously didn't pay attention to the fact that they ignored their child and therefore they're covering up for themselves That's the truth.
There was one mother on there which called video games "dangerous tools" that were in her house. I'm sorry but if your son is playing 20 hours a day on the computer and you didn't think that there was a problem until two years later then you need to look at how you raise your child. It's also the parent's duty to look after their children, if they're playing video games for so long there's obviously something they want to avoid, whether they know it or not, why not try talking to them? There was a mother on the program which said that she used to hit her child because he was playing too much and then she realised that talking to him worked a lot more...Yeah. I know there are a lot of awesome parents out there, parents who are reliable.
13. IT'S NOT ALWAYS A BAD INFLUENCE
Despite the show promising to discover "the truth" it only focused on the negative impacts, the people who claimed to be addicted, those who have played games for too long and who became in debt, lost friends or let their education suffer. What about the other side? Those people who video games have helped. I don't know about everyone story, but it has had a positive impact on me and my friends lives. For instance, I got an article published in a magazine who only when they realized that I write video game articles allowed me to write something for them, I got a guaranteed place in the school I wanted to go to because I had an interest in English and Computing and I could back it up, plus I've met some really awesome people that I hope I stay friends with for a really long time. Also Alan Wake introduced me to Poets of the Fall, who I think are awesome (I'm listening to their cover of "You Know My Name" as I write this article). Just because it's on the screen doesn't mean that it's not able to be a good influence.
14. COMMUNITY EVENTS
I love gaming events, everyone that I met at them are really friendly and excited about the games. I'm also really hoping that there will be a Tomb Raider event held at Eidos, I would be so there if there is. The show starts off at the StarCraft II event in London. Like the Tomb Raider booth at E3 and other gaming events, they had people who dressed up as the character, and people took photos of them. To the Presenter he has obviously has never been near an event like this. He walked down the queue and had interviews with some of the people waiting for the game shop's doors to open. Two things bugged me with this section. Firstly the people he interviewed, I imagine, would never have agreed if they knew what the final product would have been. There was a lovely woman who said that she "loved video games" I don't think she would have been on the program if she knew what their message would eventually turn out like. Secondly, remember when you were a child and it was Christmas (I know this is random, but stay with me on this ) and you couldn't sleep? If you have a passion for a certain video game series and there's a new release coming the following day, you're not going to sleep. I don't think I did when Tomb Raider Underworld came out, or Anniversary or Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light....I think I was writing an article for Guns and Grapple at the time to keep myself busy, there was one time I bought cake...Ok, back to the article, the people in the queue weren't going to get any sleep, and they wanted to be there, they wanted to get the game as soon as possible, so why does the program give the impression that the developers tricked them into being there.
15. NEUTRAL EXPRESSION
Do you think about what your facial expression is when you're playing a game? reading a book? watching a movie? For most people it's a neutral expression because you're absorbing the information and you're not required to interact with the monitor or book using your face. There was a section of the program where Rowe talks to a photographer who has photographed the expressions of children who played video games. It doesn't really prove anything, and to those who did move it's because it was a difficult section in the game, simple explanation!
16. ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
After the show, I spent about an hour on google looking at the topic since the show barely touched on it. What I found was a statement made by the presenter who told gamers to "judge after you've watched" and that the show "reveal the hidden psychological devices in games that are designed to keep us coming back for more", by that they mean the Skinner's box scenario. If you're interested in game design, you probably have seen this being used as evidence before, Extra Creditz at The Escapist has touched on this subject and so has many other gaming sites. For those who don't know the Skinner box theory is when a rat is placed inside a cage. In the cage is a button, if the rat hits the button, food will appear. Every time the animal presses it, it is rewarded with more food. Fair enough, it's a theory certainly, although I do feel that it's more relevant to gambling then video games as not all games has an achievement system. The thrill of video games has always been in the experience, achievements are a gimmick. I admit I do have an XBOX360 now and it makes me smile when I get an achievement, however it's not my driving force, it's not the reason why I play games. For some people it may be that they find something fascinating in getting rewards like this, however it's not a strong arguement considering that this was the only theory that they gave to why games are addictive.
17. SECRETLY PLANNING WORLD DOMINATION
What made me laugh during the show was a conclusion given by the Presenter who said that companies put mechanics in their game to make the player want to return. Of course they do, otherwise it would not be immersion and not worth buying or spending your time playing, nevertheless movies and books do the same thing. You can read a book and say "I didn't want to put it down" it's pretty much the same for video games. The moment that I found amusing however was when he was pushing this statement and making it appear as though it sounded like the developers are actually trying to find way to make people never leave the game, and that they are the ones who to blame. Also if game developers are planning an actual world domination, I am so glad that we have Square Enix on our side.
18. PROVIDING RESEARCH
There is a question that was in a Physics GCSE paper a few years ago which asked why companies should have independent research companies to test their products. It's actually an incredibly easy question to answer, you don't have companies doing research and tests on their own products because they can lie, and even if they don't lie to sell more, their research won't be counted because they could be. Near the end, Rowe puts pressure onto the video game industry to do the research, these are not the people you need to be asking. If the gaming industry did tests, it's more then likely that Panorama does another episode on "How the video game industry lied". Furthermore companies have done tests, they have been inconclusive, therefore video game addiction is not recognized as an official medical issue.
19. IT'S A BLIZZARD
By the time the program ends there is one video game company that sticks in mind; Blizzard entertainment, the company behind World of Warcraft. It was the most mentioned company that the "addicts" blamed. One of these people, nicknamed Leo stated " I wouldn't inflict this game on anyone. This game is just a disease," I feel as though this show was less about discovering the truth but more of an attack towards WoW, The program was aired in December, on the same day as the release of World of Warcraft Cataclysm, a series that most of the people that appeared on the show blamed. Blizzard's statement didn't arrive until the end where they clearly stated "real life should always take priority", but even that was ignored by the presenter just like the Eidos section.
20. IF IT'S HORRIBLE, DON'T PAY THE SUBSCRIPTION FEE
Also during the interview "Leo", there was something that he did during the program which the presenter and myself picked up on, but we went to different conclusions. During Leo's interview, he was playing World of Warcraft while he was being interviewed. The presenter picked up on this and linked it to the addiction and that he couldn't physically pull himself away from it and when he did on behalf of the interview, the show cut to him playing again. In my mind, I'm thinking it was either two things. Firstly for many people, playing video games is relaxing. I play games after I get in from college and later in the evening because it calms me down. During an interview for television must be stressful and therefore might have found it relaxing to play a game during the session mainly because he was allowed to. Although looking over it, I came to another decision, it goes back to the parent I was talking about earlier. He messed up because he was too focused on the points more about his real life (it's not addiction it's stupidity) and therefore blamed the games for his faults. He emphasized this by playing the game during the interview to make a stronger impact on the audience.
It wasn't exactly confirmed in words, but the indication from Crystal is that it is Tomb Raider. If that is the case then you may want to keep your eyes open for the Edge Magazine on 10th May, I'll put a reminder up for the magazine closer to the date. If the issue is really good, I may be giving one away in a competition (I'm putting one together now)
Also on the topic of competitions, since PS3 owners got the Tomb Raider Trilogy recently and XBOX360 fans got quite a lot of exclusive material over the past three years, I wanted to have a competition focusing on the PC gamers. I know that there are quite a few of you, so I want to know what you want as a competition prize, I was thinking perhaps some collector editions versions of TRA or TRU, but if you have any more ideas please contact me :)
Crystal Dynamics has donated another awesome piece of Tomb Raider merchandise to be sold at auction through eBay to raise money for the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief; a seven foot arcade unit used to promote Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light at E3, and if that wasn't good enough at it's also signed by the dev team.
The auction ends in just under 10 days, and currently it's $102.
This unit (one of only 4) was created to promote our awesome Xbox 360 Summer of Arcade hit title at E3 2010.
Once it was finished being used at E3 it was then signed by the Dev team and boxed up for a special day just like this one.
Of the four created. two were given away to lucky TR fans and one remains in the studio ( these are the images supplied above). This one is all boxed up in storage ready to be shipped.
It stands at little under 7 foot tall.
The units were built from scratch.
They come complete with an
- Xbox 360 retail kit inside (with a copy of LCGOL installed of course!)
- HD monitor
- Surround sound system (with external remote) that extends from the front of the unit to sit right behind your head as you play.
We even went as far as to have instal a faux coin insets panel on the front.
As you can see from the images the faceplate has two Xbox 360 controllers firmly fixed in place.
PROSPECTIVE BIDDER PLEASE NOTE:
This unit is HEAVY, and will cost a few hundred dollars to ship within the United State.
So although we would love nothing better than to ship it to a lucky winner outside of the US please consider the cost of freight should you wish to bid.
Also, this is a PROMOTIONAL UNIT, so the Xbox and surround sound system are strapped inside the unit. It is not set up like a retail unit you would find at an Arcade store (which means you could take the retail kit our and swap it for something else should you choose)
There is a reserve price set on this Arcade unit, as it is worth a few cents and should help raise a significant amount of them for the Play for Japan charity. Should it not be won on Ebay we will sell it privately elsewhere and donate the money to the Red Cross on Play For Japan behalf.
Thanks for looking.
Should you have any general questions send them to me on Twitter via @crystaldkarl.
If you wish to bid outside of the US and want to get a freight estimate send me a message via EBAY message boards.
Happy bidding from all at Crystal Dynamics
Best
Karl
This auction is part of the Play For Japan campaign, a video game industry initiative to raise money for earthquake and tsunami relief in Japan. To find more info on this initiative, and to learn how to participate, visit us athttp://www.playforjapan.org. 100% of the profit from this auction is being donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund - a GlobalGiving Project
