PUBLIC MARKS with tags gaming & games

Mobile gaming is changing from its early days of rip-offs of classic, low-tech 2D games and ugly 3D games that are too ambitious for the platform. As a gaming platform it's gaining momentum in a big way.

A few weeks ago, there was a post on GamerGod which listed the 10 most interesting people in games 2005. While some of those who made the cut were arguably admirable, it was a hugely US-biased list

Ten years ago, Sony brought three dimensions, as well as the concept of "maturity", to the video gaming masses. And yet, when many people think back to the "PlayStation era", a hyper realistic character in a 3D landscape doesn't necessarily come to mind. Instead, they think of a flat cartoony dog that could rap.

Graphics and images have been an integral part of every game ever made -- it's a visual medium, after all. What you see is what you get. Even the most primitive games that couldn't draw proper images onscreen at least gave you ASCII art or text. And so it went, throughout gaming history, until Parappa the Rapper finally brought a new sense into play: in NanaOn-Sha's PSone masterpiece, you had to rely on your ears as much as your eyes.

2005 draws to a close with a look back at the many great games this year. Independent gaming continues to grow each year offering game experiences that you can't find anywhere else.

In Play Between Worlds, T. L. Taylor examines multiplayer gaming life as it is lived on the borders, in the gaps--as players slip in and out of complex social networks that cross online and offline space. Taylor questions the common assumption that playing computer games is an isolating and alienating activity indulged in by solitary teenage boys. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), in which thousands of players participate in a virtual game world in real time, are in fact actively designed for sociability. Games like the popular Everquest, she argues, are fundamentally social spaces.

We're all familiar with Japanese box art being changed for Americans, whether they alter the art style completely or replace minimalistic covers with garish Photoshopped collages. Just as interesting is how they taken American or European games and market them in Japan. This is a small comparison gallery of some of the more interesting changes. Most of these images were yanked from Amazon Japan and Lik Sang, so, uh, patronize them, I guess.