GOG.com now offers
a free game,
Akalabeth: World of Doom, the first game from Richard "Lord British"
Garriott, creator of the Ultima series of role-playing games. Available for
Windows, Linux, and OS X, they characterize this "direct predecessor of the
landmark Ultima series" as "the grandparent of the computer RPG genre." Here's
more:
This historical title laid the groundwork for the
Ultima
series, the legendary role-playing saga that grew with the computer gaming
medium, giving joy, wonderment, and adventure while preaching knightly virtues
and the value of imagination to generations of gamers, decade after decade. It's
often referred to as Ultima 0, while its creator is now - and shall be forever -
known to the gamer folk as Lord British. In 2008 - 29 years after selling the
first copy of
Akalabeth packed in a ziploc bag complete with photocopied manual - Richard
Garriott de Cayeux (as he now calls himself in our mundane dimension) fullfiled
one of his life-long dreams and followed his father's footsteps. He visited the
International Space Station, becoming the 6th private space-traveler (that we
know of) in the history of mankind. Then, soon after the safe landing, he began
his pursuit of another dream: to keep alive the legacy of the world he fathered
in the form of its spiritual successor, Shroud of the Avatar.
BBC News quotes
former Blizzard Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo making the case for video games as Olympic sport. "There's
a very good argument for e-sports being in the Olympics," says the company's
Chief Creative Officer. "I think the way that you look at e-sports is that it's
a very competitive skillset and you look at these professional gamers and the
reflexes are lightning quick and their having to make very quick decisions on
the fly. When you look at their 'actions per minute', they're clearing over
300." The 300 actions per minute argument is pretty airtight, but the BBC keeps
calm and carries on, explaining that Pardo's convictions aside, getting
videogames acknowledged as Olympic sport is an uphill battle at best, and even
that would not mean they would be automatically included in the Olympics anyway.
Update: This post originally stated Pardo still works at Blizzard (he
resigned
in July), and the headline
attributed his quote to Blizzard. Apologies for the errors and any confusion
they caused.
Merry Christmas Eve. It's unseasonably warm in these parts for the season, but
there's nothing wrong with being cozy. Hope you are cozy too.
Not that I'm unbiased on the subject, but I agree with the sentiment of this
headline:
86 Players Not Named Odell Beckham Jr. Made The Pro Bowl. Of course, it's not like
they picked a bunch of scrubs at wide receiver either, so it's all good. I'll bet he gets named a
replacement when one of the others begs off with a hangnail, though.
R.I.P.:
Where Aren't They Now- 10 Overlooked Deaths of 2014 (Part 2).
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