So…It’s Been More Than a Month

Long time no see, folks. For those of you who are still following me (I’m sure there’s at least one of you) I apologize for the lack of content. August was…hectic, to say the least, and as a result, I more or less suffered a complete and utter creative drain. Truth be told, I’m still recovering from that. Ah, but you’re not interested in hearing excuses, are you? I’ll wager you all want to know what’s going on with Double Crit now- namely, whether or not I’m actually going to start posting readable content again any time on the near future.

The short answer is yes. Definitely, I promise. At least, until I get hit with another bout of insomnia and my sleep schedule borks itself yet again. That’s been known to happen, I’m afraid. It’s rather irritating. Anyway, here’s an idea of what I’ve got in store for all you fine folks this month:

The EU Digital License Ruling Doesn’t Change Much

Okay, so first things first…yeah, this post is way too late. My apologies for that. While I’m sure you’re incredibly interested in hearing the reason why I wasn’t able to get this article up and running on time, we’ve something to discuss today. Something fairly important, as a matter of fact. See, earlier this month, a judge in the European Union made a very, very interesting ruling- one can only describe it as fairly progressive.

If you’re in one of the EU’s member states, and you’ve purchased digital content online (such as through Steam or Origin), you are legally allowed to resell it: regardless of what the organization you purchased it from tries to tell you. Pretty good, right?  But what does it mean for the industry?  This could be the basis of a revolutionary new set of laws, right?

Right?

What Steam Greenlight Means for Developers

First and foremost, my apologies for being absent last Thursday. It was something of a busy week, the latter of which was spent fending off sickness (which I’m still not entirely certain I’ve conquered.) Regardless, I’m back, and with any luck, I can get back to posting regular content.

Today’s fare is going to be rather light, admittedly, but later in the week I’m going to discuss the ruling in the EU earlier this month about the resale of open data licenses (and what it says about the absurd copy protection we’re forced to suffer through.) Similarly, next week I’ll be discussing how the medium of gaming has grown up, and what still needs to be done if it’s to be taken seriously – I’ll be making references to some of my earlier articles here. So, there’s some good stuff on the way. Stay tuned, folks.

For now, let’s talk about Valve’s latest venture.

E3 2012 is Go

For those of you living under a rock, it’s a pretty big week for…well, pretty much everyone. Not only is the Electronic Entertainment Expo kicking into full swing, but the global launch of the new Internet Protocol Suite (IPv6) is tomorrow. I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to hear that I’ll be discussing the former, and largely glossing over the latter. Go read my post at VPN Haus (or just have a look at their site) if you want to know more about IPv6. I think I do a fairly decent job of laying out exactly what the whole affair’s about, but hey- who knows?

Anyway, this post isn’t going to be as meaty as my regular fare. E3 means that my workload has pretty much shot through the roof, so I don’t really have as much personal time as usual. As such, this one’s just going to be a quick look at a few of the noteworthy things I noticed about Monday’s flurry of press conferences and keynotes. I’ll have something more substantial for you guys on Thursday, promise.

For now, I’ll inundate you with a few of my thoughts on yesterday’s press conferences.

Are Video Games and Porn Really Ruining Men?

Hey there, ladies and gents! We’re back to our usual fare today.

As I often do, I decided to engage in a marathon writing session last night. Taking a break towards the end, I noticed a rather interesting article published on CNN. See, there’s this psychologist who thinks we’re in the midst of a crisis that affects thousands- maybe hundreds of thousands- of young men across society. The death of adult behavior, a digital addiction that culminates in the need for instant gratification, and the failure to accomplish…well, anything. More and more guys are becoming ‘hooked on arousal.’ The two culprits? Video games…and Pornography.

Because clearly, those two have everything to do with one another.

January 18: When The Blackout Arrives

We’re on the cusp of something big here, folks. All across the web, servers are closing their doors. Wikipedia has blocked access to its users for the first time since its launch. Reddit’s shutting down. Google, Facebook, and Twitter are standing up and speaking out. Tomorrow’s gonna be a big day.

Wait, what? Why are they still protesting? The White House condemned the bill, didn’t it? That means it’s over, right? SOPA and PIPA are dead in the water, aren’t they?

Apparently not.

What I’m about to tell you next borders on the downright comedic.

How Will SOPA Affect Gamers?

Heya folks. It’s been a while. Been busy dealing with Life and the Universe, and everything those two clowns have been throwing at me. Been a lot of real bad stuff going down- but we’re not here to talk about that. We’ve more important things to speak about; bigger fish to fry, as it were.

This is going to be slightly different fare from some of the other pieces you’ve seen on my blog- it’s gonna taste just a touch more bitter.

Minecraft Adventure Update “Leaked”, Approved by Notch

This’ll probably be pretty old news to most of you, but Minecraft 1.8 went live on Friday….well, sort of. An incomplete build of the 1.8 “Adventure” update was leaked onto one of the 4chan boards a couple days ago (word is it was /v/). It’s definitely a legit update- I’ve fiddled around with it a bit myself, but haven’t yet gotten the chance to play it at length.

Turns out, this build was originally intended for trusted playtesters only. It kind of shows.

Don’t get me wrong, the update’s pretty awesome- I’m loving creative mode, and the new experience system in survival mode is downright intriguing. But I’ve already found several glitches- the sound sometimes cuts out, and ‘ghost’ items are dropped on the ground if you drop items from your inventory) and I’m sure there are quite a few more.

Either way, Notch has pretty much given the okay for this one, and is reportedly in the process of testing the pre-release himself.

Those of you looking for a few juicy details, swing by Pendit67’s thread on Reddit. Those of you who just want to get in on the Adventure Update early, you can find the file here. Copy the .jar file into C:/Users/AppData/Roaming/.minecraft/bin and replace the old .jar.

 

Update:

A second prerelease of the 1.8 client can be found here, and a server client for 1.8 can be downloaded here.

Image Credits: Gamerant