Games At Work dot Biz

e373 – Patently virtually hard to beat

By Michael Martine | July 4, 2022 - 06:32 |July 3, 2022 Podcast

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Stories about robocalls, patenting, modding, Nethack at @MuseumModernArt, @Atari ’s 50th anniversary games & @Artiphon ’s Orba.

Michael, Andy and Michael begin this week’s episode with something everyone wants to minimize: unwanted telephone calls. As of 1 July, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States requires small and medium sized phone companies to implement the rules known as Shaken/Stir for caller ID authentication. This means that calls that are placed must have their caller ID signed by the originating carriers and validated by other carriers before reaching consumers per the FCC website. All in all, good news for consumers to make it easier to determine what is probable spam and what may be a legitimate call to take. And of course the James Bond reference is not lost on the cohosts.

The team then covers an intriguing story about how a government contractor attempted and succeeded in patenting an open source concept. After a conversation on hardware hacking, the team turns to games that were unintentionally unbeatable. Nethack is now in MoMA and a modder is making $20k per month by porting popular games to virtual reality. This modder is funded by Patreon backers who are remarkably consistent in their support.

The cohosts discuss Atari’s 50th anniversary, and the updated takes on classic games. Wrapping up this week’s episode, Andy shares his experiences with Bitburner and Michael R demos his new Artiphon Orba.

Are you in the 100% club? Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know!

Selected Article Links

Ars Technica article: FCC says it closed a loophole that many robocallers used to evade blocking

FCC document: Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication

STIR/SHAKEN

Scammer Payback YouTube channel

TechDirt article: Ridiculous: Gov’t Contractor Copies Open Source 3D Printing Concept… And Patents It

Hangprinter

The Hardware Hacker: Adventures in Making and Breaking Hardware

Ars Technical article: A brief history of (unintentionally) unbeatable games

PC Gamer article: Nethack is now in the Museum of Modern Art

Rogue by gandreas software for iOS and iPadOS

The Verge article: Meet the modder making $20,000 a month bringing the biggest games to VR

The Verge article: Atari is getting a massive historical game collection for its 50th anniversary

comicbook.com article: New Atari Collection Puts Twists on Over 150 Retro Games

Hackaday article: Want a break from hardware hacking? Try Bitburner

Artiphon Orba

Gearnews article: Artiphon Orba 2: An entire studio in half a grapefruit

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e372 – Metaverse & LEGO Standards

By Michael Martine | June 27, 2022 - 06:23 |June 26, 2022 Podcast

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Remington Standard typewriters — Photo by Daniel Gregoire on Unsplash

Metaverse & LEGO Standards – discussion on @metaverse_forum, videoconferencing etiquette, audio deepfakes, and @LEGO_Group

Andy joins Michael and Michael for his triumphant return to the co-host chair. The trio start off this week’s episode with a thorough discussion on standards and standards bodies, prompted by the articles on the newly minted Metaverse Standards Forum. This conversation brings to mind the RosettaNet standards body – quite the blast from the past.

Then, a series of LEGO stories – a few more than the norm, beginning with Doom played on a single LEGO brick. Michael M learns what a MOC stands for – My Own Creation which are fan-based LEGO creations. Check out those, as well as some amazing new builds reimagining classic sets celebrating LEGO’s 90th anniversary.

Should Games at Work sign up to be an early member of the Metaverse Standards Forum? Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know!

Selected Article Links

Metaverse Standards Forum

Ars Technica article: Meta and Microsoft team up to create metaverse standards; Apple, Google sit out

Wikipedia article: RosettaNet

RosettaNet standards

The Verge article: Microsoft, Meta, and others are founding a metaverse open standards group

PC Magazine article: Having Your Camera Off in Meetings Could Cost You Your Job

IGN article: Amazon Announces Alexa Can Mimic the Voices of Deceased Relatives

BBC article: Jobfished: the con that tricked dozens into working for a fake design agency

9 to 5 Mac article: Watch YouTube videos on your Apple Watch with WatchTube

Dick Tracy’s Two-Way Wrist TV

Lots of LEGO

Techspot article: You can now play Doom on a LEGO piece

Rebrickable MOCs Designed by manglegrat

LEGO Icons Galaxy Explorer

Brickset article: Interview with Mike Psiaki, designer of 10497 Galaxy Explorer

Brickset article: Interview with Milan Madge, designer of 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle

Best vacation ever. 🏖️ LEGO Star Wars Summer Vacation, an Original special, streaming August 5 only on @disneyplus. pic.twitter.com/6qSZt1u4Ct
— LEGO (@LEGO_Group) June 21, 2022

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e371 – Legacy Games & New UX

By Michael Martine | June 20, 2022 - 06:14 |June 19, 2022 Podcast

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futuristic UX — Photo by hsinshu lee on Unsplash

@michaelrowe01’s #WWDC22 experiences, metaverse connections, @humane building the beyond, @habitca ‘s goal gamification and #LOTR expanded universe

Michael R begins with a recap of his WWDC staycation education week, highlighting his experiences, and making a connection to the UX enhancements that lend themselves to mixed reality experiences. Michael R makes a compelling argument for how Center Stage may frame the way that applications and focused interactions may be handled in an Apple version of augmented reality. Michael M wonders whether the iPadOS Sidecar functionality is integrated with the multiscreen MacOS Center Stage.

Michael and Michael then turn to an article about Humane, a startup comprised of amazingly talented people, whose mission is “to build innovative technology that feels familiar, natural and human.” The Cult of Mac article focuses on several intriguing patents with user experiences that are projected vs experienced through glasses or a pane of glass. The Sam Sheffer video highlighted in the Cult of Mac article, and embedded below is a fascinating exploration of the people, patents and process. Give it a watch.

The co-hosts then turn to the gamification of goal achievement. Habitica shares gamification characteristics such as earning digital rewards and team battles with other examples such as Chore Wars and SuperBetter. Michael and Michael did go to the Games At Work archives, and found a discussion on the prior incarnation of Habitca from episode 41 – see the link below!

Wrapping things up, Michael and Michael discuss how the Lord of the Rings extended universe has similarities with Marvel and Star Wars, based on a Guardian article’s assessment.

What do you think the future augmented reality user experiences may be? Will you be ramifying your goals? Why or why not? Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know!

Selected Article Links

Michael Rowe’s Random Thoughts blog: WWDC 2022 Keynotes

Apple’s WWDC 2022

Cult of Mac article: Secretive startup full of Apple talent aims to change your life through wearables

Hu.ma.ne

McKinsey doesn’t pull practical jokes. They mean business. McKinsey & Co.: Metaverse could reach $5 trillion in value by 2030 #McKinsey #metaverse https://t.co/n9azmhvk38 via @VentureBeat @GamesBeat
— Dean Takahashi (@deantak) June 15, 2022

TechRadar article: Ever wanted to play Doom in Minecraft? This player built an in-game PC just for that

Habitca

Games at Work e41 — The Paymeium Currency (for Habit RPG)

Chore Wars

SuperBetter

The Guardian article: Is the Lord of the Rings now a never-ending franchise like Marvel and Star Wars?

Michael R’s WWDC blog posts

WWDC 2022 keynotes

State of the Platforms

Apple Design Awards 2022

WWDC Day two – Into the meat of the matter

WWDC Day three – Catching up

WWDC Day four – The nitty gritty

WWDC Day five – Smooth landing

and Extra extra links we didn’t get to

The Verge article: Microsoft is working on games for Microsoft Teams

RetroRGB article: Palm OS developer releases source to classic games, 20+ years later

Slate article: A Horrifying Proposal for Airplane Seating Confirms the Future of Coach Is Being Knocked Unconscious

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:31 — 36.2MB) | Embed

e370 – Driving with the Queen

By Michael Martine | June 6, 2022 - 06:39 |June 5, 2022 Podcast

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London streetscape with taxi and double-decker bus — Photo by Sabrina Mazzeo on Unsplash

Driving with the Queen: stories about maps – custom @Waze voices, @geoguessr & an open source generator, LARPs (#StarWars & more), #metaverse PvP, #WWDC22 and @DiabloImmortal

Michael and Michael start their engines (and navigation software) with a story about how Waze is celebrating the Queen’s platinum jubilee with a special Waze Voice. While reportedly only available to users in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, it appears also in the options for US users as well! Of course, no story about driving with the Queen would be complete without the Wayne’s World clip of driving with Queen. Party on, Garth!

Next up, an article on the best icebreaker games for groups highlights some great ways to generate engagements with large virtual groups. One of the games is called Geoguessr that teleports you to a place on earth and has you discover where you are. Staying on the map theme (with Waze and Geoguessr), the next link is a free and open source tool that allows you to create your own fantasy map, or configure a map with specific names, like adjacent technologies.

An article from the New Yorker discusses LARPs – live-action role-play games, starting off with the Disney Star Wars experience in Orlando on the Galactic Starcrusier. While this example of a LARP has garnered a great deal of attention in the past couple of years, due to the Star Wars theme, as well as the cost, LARPs are not new, and the article gives several examples. A key takeaway is the value that people are placing on experiences versus things, and as entertainment, LARPs are extraordinarily immersive experiences that allow those being entertained to lose themselves in the story.

Then Michael and Michael turn to an article from The Next Web where they explore rights in virtual worlds, specifically what legal actions could be imposed based on interactions between people in the metaverse. PvP and PvE games are debated, as are geographic and country level laws. While the co-hosts did not address the similarities and differences between interactions between people in a LARP and people’s avatars in a virtual reality space, this could be an interesting discussion to explore.

WWDC looms large – it’s next week – and there are a couple of articles in the show notes below about what people are hoping to get from the upcoming conference. Michael and Michael wrap up with the excitement about the Diablo Immortal game being live (for some!) on iOS.

Have you played in a LARP? Do you have concerns about digitized harm? Are you starting up a Diablo game? Drop us a line at @gamesatwork_biz and let us know!