All Tech Considered posts about Gaming
by Sami Yenigun
Video game makers want their products to be as realistic as possible. Often, that means modeling virtual weapons on real ones, then buying permission to use real brand names. For gun makers, that brand placement is worth a lot more than the licensing fees they collect.
by Zack Seward
Joysticks in hand, participants played what was perhaps the world's biggest video game on the side of the 29-story Cira Centre in Philadelphia. The interactive light display kicked off a week of events for the annual celebration of the local tech scene.
by Laura Sydell
BioShock Infinite uses a mix of history and fantasy to create a world dominated by a racist fundamentalist Christian cult. The latest installment in the video game series drew praise from critics as proof that games could be more than just computer graphics. Can the genre really reach the heights of great art?
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by Heather Chaplin
Gears of War is one of those hard-core military video games with spectacular graphics and epic stories. It's not something you'd expect to work on a smartphone or with a download, but that's just where designers are planning to take these types of games.
by Steve Mullis
John Riccitiello, whose rocky six-year tenure saw a 60 percent drop in Electronic Art's stock price, said in his resignation letter that he leaves feeling that EA "has never been in a better position as a company."
by Steve Mullis
In an industry full of damsels in distress, game designer Mike Mika hacked the classic game to let his 3-year-old play as the female hero. His story is becoming part of a larger conversation about gender roles in the video game industry. But Mika says he didn't set out to push a feminist agenda or statement.
Elise Hu and Laura Sydell
Hardware is a hot topic this year at the Texas-based festival famous for launching startups like Twitter and Foursquare.
by Glenn McDonald
Sales of games on the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 have dropped precipitously in recent years as mobile gaming has become more popular. Now a familiar champion, Tomb Raider and its heroine Lara Croft, returns to fight the good fight for old-school console gaming.
by Jim Zarroli
New Jersey is the newest state to make online gambling legal. Its law limits participation to state residents, but how will that be enforced? And groups that help compulsive gamblers are worried that gamblers won't have to go to casinos to feed their addiction.
by Cyrus Farivar
With no government ties, Bitcoin is used to buy everything from blogging services to Brooklyn-made cupcakes. Theoretically, millions of dollars are being kept in the digital currency. And it's increasingly being used by specialized websites to offer online gambling. But is Bitcoin gambling legal?
by Steve Henn
Titan, potentially the world's fastest computer, comes online at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The supercomputer is designed to do more than 20,000 trillion calculations a second, allowing researchers to model everything from black holes to nuclear reactors. And they'll have video gamers to thank for its blazing speed.
Video game makers are rolling out their new titles — with a wide range of creativity and style — just in time for the holiday shopping season. Jamin Warren, founder of Kill Screen magazine, shares his top picks.
Minnesota gamblers no longer have to rip paper pull-tabs to see if they've won cash: As of this week, they can use an iPad to play games that give them instant feedback. The venture was sparked by a need to raise money to help for an NFL football stadium costing an estimated $975 million.
by Aarti Shahani
KQEDOn Kickstarter, the largest crowd-funding site, a handful of entrepreneurs have raised millions of dollars more than they expected. But if they fail to deliver their promised product, questions arise over whether the supporters are donating money or making a purchase.
by Laura Sydell
The major game console makers have taken a time out to improve on what they've got. Some gamers don't see a need for an upgrade, others know what they'd like to see in new systems. One idea is to store games online, another to make consoles more attractive for non-gaming users.
