March 2007

I’ve been tinkering with Twitter, which is a bit like a manual desktop presence interface. Well, manual to start with, but easily automated from various applications, and — of course — with the Web 2.0 social element. I.E. Seeing what your friends are twittering on about.

I have a script for XChat, which connects XQF (a frontend for QStat… a Linux version of QuakeSpy/GameSpy). The script notifies folks in specific IRC channels when I’m playing a game, server details, and when I return again. I’ve extended the script to also submit Tweets to Twitter when I join games, and when I return… Quite cool.

Simply drop the script into your .xchat2 directory, and edit it to configure. Download hyar!

After much poking around, I’ve been able to resolve the minor site issues that we were seeing. The category archives are now working correctly. The MySQL error was being caused by the Event Calendar plugin, which has now been upgraded to a Wordpress 2.1.x compatible version.

I’ve also taken the time to widgetise some of the theme elements, and customise the theme a little bit further. Enjoy!

… Probably.

Gamplay.co.uk (who I’ve reserved a copy with) are quoting that Quake Wars will be released (or at least is due to be released) in thirty-nine days. If all goes well, we could be looking at some serious fragging action in April/May!
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Todd Hollenshead from id Software has been doing the rounds with various press outlets, discussing how piracy is affecting the PC gaming industry. The BBC recently picked up this one.

Todd discusses ETQW and one of the forms of protection they’ve used to limit Beta copies. They’ve issued dongles with the Betas :) However, they appear to have a rogue Beta tester who is leaking screenshots. Whilst probably not actual piracy, and looks just like a NDA violation.

I don’t agree that piracy causes a decline in sales that forces developers to migrate to sole development on console platforms. Pirated copies do not equate to lost sales. Sole development on consoles will also mean game developers can no longer use PC owners as a Beta base, ‘cos let’s face it, they do. I do think that online activation (As in Half-Life2), and CD Keys are going to become the norm, even for consoles!

Splashdamage have posted a developer diary roundup of Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, including The Making of ETQW, ETQWs Backstory, and hyar, hyar, and hyar.

Original story from Splashdamage.com.