3D images of a person's body - Wedding Dresses



Advocates claim that routine body scans will reduce the chance of similar attacks occurring in the future. However, given our recent history of sacrificing civil liberties for what is often a false sense of security, let's stop, catch our breath and think about this first.

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WBI scanners produce strikingly graphic 3D images of a person's body under their clothes, rendering their use tantamount to a "digital strip search." These scans reveal the most intimate contours of the body, including details such as mastectomy scars, colostomy bags and adult diapers. Knowing that a government employee will virtually see them naked is bound to cause many passengers significant mental and emotional discomfort. The ethics of these digital strip searches are even more complicated where children are concerned.

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Specifically, is the non-targeted use of WBI scanners a real security solution worth compromising the privacy of millions? Fearing the possible violation of child pornography laws, the UK has already prohibited the scanning of anyone under age 18 outright.

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The TSA attempts to address these privacy concerns by viewing scans remotely via closed circuit monitors, blurring faces, and deleting images immediately after screening. These precautions are a step in the right direction, but these scanned body images may prove to be too great a temptation for some TSA workers.

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If the Internet has taught us anything, it's that people have bxmnbxcfergs an insatiable interest in the anatomy of others. Some of these images are sure to leak. When we allowed the NSA to wiretap our phones, they illegally eavesdropped on the most private details of our personal lives. Are we certain that the TSA is any more trustworthy with the most private details of our bodies?

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Leaving aside the privacy concerns inherent in these devices, their effectiveness is far from certain. For example, WBI scanners are unable to detect any items concealed inside a person's body. Do we really believe that anyone who is willing to blow themselves up will not also be willing to smuggle explosives in their body cavities? The scanners also prove unreliable in detecting items molded to the body or hidden in folds of skin.

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Recent British studies suggest that they are less effective in detecting low density materials such as plastic explosives, powders and liquids - precisely the type of material Abdulmutallab smuggled sewn into his underpants. With this evidence in mind, we need to seriously question whether the $150,000+ required to purchase a WBI scanner could be put to better use elsewhere. Experience has shown us that diligent law enforcement and good intelligence work are still the most effective methods of foiling terrorist plots.

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At the time of his attempted attack, Abdulmutallab was on watch lists in both the U.S. and UK. With better communication and follow-up, he could have been stopped long before he passed through airport security. We are all unnerved and frightened by the close calls we've had since 9/11, but we must acknowledge that decisions made in moments of fear and anxiety are rarely the best. Before we relinquish more of our civil liberties - ground that, once ceded, is extremely difficult to regain - we must be certain that the wholesale use of WBI scanners is both an effective tool in preventing terrorist attacks and compatible with our nation's values. The scanners don't measure up on either count. xll

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Bobby's Got The Right Idea?-_- -wow power leveling


Mark Long, CEO at Seattle, WA-based Blacklight: Tango Down developer Zombie Studios said, "I know I’ll get flamed for this, but I’m going defend Bobby Kotick here. ...

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Merging [business models of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft] makes a ton of sense when the vast majority of Call of Duty players are playing online. How is the fanbase going to respond? A man becomes learned by asking questions.If there was an MMOFPS version of Call of Duty with World of Warcraft-quality RPG elements under the hood, I’d bet it would be the biggest game in history. I’d play it. I’d play the fuck out it."

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Long, whose multiplatform $15 downloadable FPS Blacklight: Tango Down showed almost 100,000 players on Xbox Live leaderboards at the end of July, said his studio is "definitely open to the free-to-play model," which relies on microtransactions and advertising for revenue.

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"[Zombie would try free-to-play in] Asia to start, but eventually bxmnbxcfergs in Europe and North America as [the model] expands on the PC. How that works out on consoles will be up to Sony and Microsoft, but I would guess that by the next hardware cycle, free-to-play, subscription and microtransaction games will represent a significant share of overall sales."

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Gamers may have less of a problem accepting a free-to-play model, as long as it's structured around a good game. In Asia, there are free-to-play shooters, some tremendously successful, such as the SmileGate-developed CrossFire.

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In the West last year, Electronic Arts launched the free-to-play microtransaction-based Battlefield Heroes, and Nexon's Combat Arms has also been notably successful in the space in the U.S.

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Another Western-derived free-to-play FPS is Mesquite, TX-based id Software's Quake Live, whose open beta began in January last year. Just this week, id announced "premium" and "pro" subscriptions for $1.99 and $3.99 a month (billed annually), respectively, depending on desired features and game modes. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.The game, which also derives revenues from advertising, still offers a large amount of maps and online multiplayer for free.

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id is currently working on the large-scale shooters Rage and Doom 4. Steve Nix, id's director of business development, said that any one business model isn't going to completely replace another. That goes for online-centric genres beyond shooters.

"We live in a world full of smart game developers serving fractured markets with disparate preferences," he said. "Therefore, new revenue models will continue to emerge and spread across borders."xll

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What First-Person Shooter Creators ? -wow power leveling



Increased monetization of online shooters is coming, and gamers adamantly opposed to emerging business models should probably get used to the idea.

wow power leveling wow power leveling Recent speculation about charging subscription fees for online shooters came about when Activision CEO Bobby Kotick -- who has before mentioned a Call of Duty MMO -- openly mused this summer how he "would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow" if he could.

wow power leveling wow power leveling Oft-quoted analyst Michael Pachter with Wedbush suggested that the times are over when game publishers can sit back and watch gamers play titles like Call of Duty for hundreds of hours for free online. "We expect the publishers, led by Activision, to devise a way to extract value from consumers who are playing online," he said recently.

wow gold wow gold Such talk taken out of context leads to speculation among gamers that Activision and other publishers may simply tack monthly fees onto existing online gaming services provided today. That's likely not the case -- smart companies will think of new ways to add value to an online experience to justify a recurring fee.

wow gold wow gold First-person shooter developers have varying opinions on the bxmnbxcfergs monetization of their specialty genre.

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buy wow gold buy wow gold "Giving players the opportunity to buy extra stuff is just fine, so long as they aren’t 'forced' to do it," said Alan Wilson, VP of Roswell, GA-based Red Orchestra and Killing Floor developer Tripwire Interactive.

aion kina aion kina He's generally against charging for a boxed FPS in conjunction with a monthly fee. "I don’t think there is any decent justification for subscription models for online multiplayer [shooters], except to rake in more cash. A liar is not believed when he speaks the truth.If some companies go that way, I’d expect to see them offer something new and different for that money -- persistent worlds, ever-expanding gameplay, giant servers -- something that justifies me laying out money every month."

"It would make me feel like I have paid the money to buy a new car and then I have to pay Ford to be allowed to drive it every day too. I know they need the money -- but they won’t be getting it that way from me." Wilson said Tripwire, a small independent studio, was able to sell 1 million units of the shooter Killing Floor by offering free downloadable content, making the title more attractive to gamers as time went on. That brought in more sales, and built up goodwill between the studio and its customers, he said.

While he said his studio doesn't foresee taking on a subscription business model in the near- to medium-term, he still conceded such a model could be justified, at least for games that are free-to-play. "While I really wouldn’t like a subscription model for online games, someone like Activision could certainly try it out. But make the player buy the game and pay subscriptions? No, just seems greedy." But not all shooter developers that we spoke with are as averse to the subscription model.xll

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Within the World of Warcraft team WoW Gold Guide -wow power leveling


Within the World of Warcraft team, there are some 30 department leads. There are three tiers of management, with France Pierce (Executive Producer) on top. Production Director Brack and Game Director Tom Chilton are below him, and below those two men are arrayed 8 lower-level managers.

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Brack notes that they try to structure the teams around the people, and not the other way around. They feel strongly that employee strengths should dictate organizational structure, and as a result all reporting structures within the company vary by team.

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Each team on the game aims to be made up of 5-8 people. They break that regularly, Brack admits, but that is the goal. The programming department currently consists of 32 people, and envelopes systems, tools, gameplay, server technologies, and UI. Brack singled out the tools team as a critical component of this group. They make tools not only for the developers, but for customer service as well.

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Blizzard has an expectation of a long life for World of bxmnbxcfergs Warcraft, and so they see these tools as products to be fully-supported in-house. These tools go through their own proofing process, with certification dictated within the company. Their UI team is a cross-disciplinary team with artists, LUA programmers, and C++ developers all collaborating on the game's front end. In all, the programming team is responsible for some 5.5 million lines of code.

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The art department is currently sitting at 51 people. Technical artists, character artists, environmental artists, dungeon artists, prop artists, animators, and concept artists are all lumped into this group. The prop team Brack calls out as a new group, a team dedicated entirely to creating wheels of cheese, torches, and other accoutrements to make a place within the game world feel 'alive'. Overall the art department is responsible for some 1.5 million assets.

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A friend is never known till a man has need.

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Pearce moves on to the Production department, only 10 members strong. They're overseeing of all the other departments, and view themselves more as support than management per se. They aim for low ratio of employees to producers, to ensure that every Blizzard employee is getting somewhat individual attention.

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Creative teams to not report to producers, he pointed out. Team leads, instead, take up leadership roles within individual departments. The art lead, for example, still creates art. Creative employees report to the men and women that best understand their individual process.

In turn, producers and leads collaborate to ensure that everyone understands their role. Leads are not forced into management/leadership roles they aren't comfortable with. Pearce notes the importance of what he called 'succession planning.' Producers help each team to understand who would be tapped in the future to take on a leadership role should the current lead step down, as well as plot out the future careers of individual employees. Overall production has managed 33,000 tasks in the last ten years.xll

Welcome to come next time.

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The Art Of Single-Player Storytelling - wow gold


[Writer Tom Cross parses out the complex blend of narrative and gameplay elements in Starcraft II for Gamasutra -- to what extent are the characters and conversation related to the gameplay, and do their interrelationships serve the experience?]

Starcraft’s designers plugged many spot-on references and jokes into their space-strategy game. From the three race’s relative similarity to FOX’s extraterrestrial heavy hitters (now the stars of the wretched AvP movie series), to almost every scene and line from Aliens, Starcraft wore its heart and its inspiration on its sleeve.

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It may have pioneered a certain brand of space epic (that stars garrulous space hicks), but for the most part it kept such antics to the brief cinematics that interspersed the Terran campaign.

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All the rest of the exposition was delivered by serious space bugs and serious space zealots, talking about chrysalides and the like. I am thankful for that small blessing, considering what I think is the overloaded, painfully insistent plotting and long-winded exposition found in Starcraft II.

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Starcraft’s world was mostly represented by in-game bxmnbxcfergs voice work and art. We got a feel for what the technology and movements of each race were from the animations and sound produced by units ingame. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.For the most part, when we saw zerglings and marines in the CG cutscenes, they looked (as most CG characters looked at the time) a little stretched out, a little stilted and peculiar, and nothing at all like their in-game counterparts.

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Blizzard was and is immensely pleased with its CG work (presently they’re neck and neck with the Final Fantasy games for most overblown cinematics), but in Starcraft they handed over most exposition and character development to surprisingly effective and attractive pre-mission talking heads, and in-mission chatter.

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There’s a reason why we don’t see the principal actors (Kerrigan, Raynor, and the various Zerg and Protoss heavies) in CG cutscenes: they’d look pretty awful, and the disconnect between their CG selves and their ingame and pre-mission selves would be evident, even laughable.

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Thus, while the tone and delivery of Starcraft’s script was as cheesy and overblown as you’d expect from a company that created Arthas and Deckard Cain, it mostly went about its business and then got out of the way.

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Pre-mission conversations were used to develop character arcs, conflicts, and (too often) to explain what the hell was going on in each mission. Books and friends should be few but good. That was often due to the different missions’ repetitious and uninventive structure. There are too many “survive the assault” and “kill the other guy” missions. The writers had to give some reason for the player’s dogged pursuit of tactical victory, over and over.xll

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Limbo Of The Critics: wow gold


I spent the latter third of this week recovering from an operation to remove my wisdom teeth, so if anything seems a bit off in This Week In Video Game Criticism, I'm going to blame it on the drugs.

First up this week is a trifecta of posts from GameSetWatch, where this column is reprinted - Zoran Iovanovici is back talking about Metal Gear Solid 4 and the War Economy this week, and Jamie Madigan looks at a concept called 'psychological reactance' in the games of BioWare.

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The third is Ian Bogost who is rightly afraid that his Facebook game Cow Clicker may become his most well-known (certainly his most virulent) project to date, as he tells Leigh Alexander. An hour in the morning is worth two in the evening.I'll admit I've kind of become attached to my Soviet Cow in Cow Clicker.

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In response to Bogost's 'Cow Clicker' and bxmnbxcfergs the interview above, Nels Anderson asks 'What does free really cost?' in which he looks at the non-monetary costs associated with the compulsive social game.

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On the flip side of the social game discussion, Erin Hoffman's 'How Social Games Ate Our Lunch' reports on the surprises that she uncovered in her "full immersion" into the social game realm, leading to her conclusion that, "we should be acknowledging and welcoming this new kind of gamer, and listening to what they have to say.

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From Senet to Settlers of Catan to Counter-Strike to FarmVille, we are all gamers, connected through the electric muse of interactivity, chasing the same brain state. A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds.And that, especially when it unnerves us, is a beautiful thing."

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Elsewhere, David Wildgoose at Kotaku Australia kicked off the healthy amount of discussion seen around the XBLA game Limbo this week. Wildgoose, inspired by a Kyle Orland piece at Gamasutra, talks about game durations in 'Does length matter?' He relates a common occurrence at tradeshows like E3, stating that, "Almost without fail, a game demonstration at events such as E3 will conclude with one of the assembled media enquiring as to how many hours of gameplay are contained within the game we just saw. If I'm rolling my eyes, the developer giving said demonstration would surely want to do likewise. After all, it's a stupid question."

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Continuing the discussion, Brian Longtin at Under Culture discusses 'Death and Education' in Limbo, saying that "By setting its action in a literal out-of-body experience, Limbo changes our perception in two major ways that make it essentially and marvelously different than its peers." Go check out the full piece for the details on those two ways.xll

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