1.
Video game development
–
Video game development is the process of creating a video game. Development is undertaken by a developer, which may range from one person to a large business. Traditional commercial PC and console games are funded by a publisher. Indie games can take time and can be produced cheaply by individuals. The indie game industry has seen a rise in recent years with the growth of new distribution systems. The first video games were developed in the 1960s, but required mainframe computers and were not available to the general public, commercial game development began in the 1970s with the advent of first-generation video game consoles and home computers. Due to low costs and low capabilities of computers, a programmer could develop a full game. The average cost of producing a video game rose from US$1–4 million in 2000 to over $5 million in 2006. Mainstream PC and console games are developed in phases. First, in pre-production, pitches, prototypes, and game design documents are written, if the idea is approved and the developer receives funding, a full-scale development begins. This usually involves a team of 20–100 individuals with various responsibilities, including designers, artists, programmers, Game development is the software development process by which a video game is produced. Games are developed as an outlet and to generate profit. Development is normally funded by a publisher, well-made games bring profit more readily. However, it is important to estimate a games financial requirements, failing to provide clear implications of games expectations may result in exceeding allocated budget. In fact, the majority of games do not produce profit. Most developers cannot afford changing development schedule and require estimating their capabilities with available resources before production, the game industry requires innovations, as publishers cannot profit from constant release of repetitive sequels and imitations. Every year new independent development companies open and some manage to develop hit titles, similarly, many developers close down because they cannot find a publishing contract or their production is not profitable. It is difficult to start a new due to high initial investment required
Video game development
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The XGS PIC 16-Bit game development board, a game development tool similar to those used in the 1990s.
2.
UBM plc
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UBM plc is a global business-to-business events organiser headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has a history as a multinational media company. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, the history of the companies that now make up UBM stretches back almost two hundred years. UBM businesses still publish many other titles that were launched in the 19th century, including Building magazine, launched in 1843 by Joseph Hansom, the company was founded in 1918 as United Newspapers by David Lloyd George to acquire the Daily Chronicle and Lloyds Weekly Newspaper. In 1929, the merged with Provincial Newspapers, an owner of regional papers in the north. The company continued for decades as a newspaper publisher, making acquisitions such as Yorkshire Post Newspapers in 1969. It acquired PR Newswire in 1982, in 1985, it bought Express Newspapers and continued to publish the Daily Express for some 15 years. It changed its name to United News & Media in 1995, sold its regional papers in 1998, in 2000, it sold the Daily Express to Richard Desmond and adopted the name of United Business Media. It went on to acquire Commonwealth Business Media for $152 million in 2006, in 2008, UBM moved its tax headquarters to Ireland, but in 2012, the company announced its intent to move its tax base back to the United Kingdom. In 2012, PA Group, the parent company of the Press Association, by 2015, UBM had rebranded itself as primarily focused on B2B events. Reflecting this,82 percent of its business in 2016 derived from events, MAI was part of a consortium which bid for the ITV south and south east area, which formed Meridian Broadcasting in 1991. In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers to form United News & Media, the resulting company owned the Daily Express newspaper, Meridian, Anglia, and a large shareholding in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television. The stake in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television was sold to Granada, United News and Media later agreed to buy Scottish Televisions 20% stake in HTV and on 28 June 1997, HTV was taken over fully by UNM for £370 million. In 1999, plans emerged of a merger between UNM and rival Carlton, however these failed when it appeared that Meridian would have to be sold off as a condition of the deal. In 2005 UBM re-focused on two businesses, PR Newswire, a global news distribution business, and CMP, an international events, print. It disposed of NOP which was acquired by GfK for £383 million in 2005, in September 2006, NewBay Media acquired CMP Entertainment Media from United Business Media. On 1 July 2008, as part of a reorganisation of the structure of the Group, United Business Media Limited was created as a new holding company. UBML is UK-listed and incorporated in Jersey, in 2010 the principal holding company of the United Business Media group was organised into five operating segments, Events, TD & M, Data Services, Online and Print
UBM plc
–
UBM plc
3.
Independent Games Festival
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The Independent Games Festival is an annual festival at the Game Developers Conference, the largest annual gathering of the indie video game industry. It was founded in 1998 to assist and inspire innovation in game development. Howdy 2006, Darwinia 2005, Alien Hominid and RocketBowl 2004, Savage, The Battle for Newerth and Yohoho. Puzzle Pirates 2003, Pontifex II2002, Kung-Fu Chess 2001, Shattered Galaxy 2000, The Rift 1999, Fire and Darkness 2012 Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade Award, Super T. I. M. E
Independent Games Festival
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FTL: Faster Than Light developer Subset Games at the IGF 2013.
Independent Games Festival
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Logo of the Independent Games Festival
Independent Games Festival
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FEZ developers with the IGF prize 2012
Independent Games Festival
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Aquaria developer Jenna Sharpe, Alec Holowka and Derek Yu on the reception of the IGF prize 2007
4.
Round table
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The Round Table is King Arthurs famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, the table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthurs fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time, by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the order associated with Arthurs court. The Round Table first appears in Waces Roman de Brut, a Norman language adaptation of Geoffrey of Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae finished in 1155, Wace says Arthur created the Round Table to prevent quarrels among his barons, none of whom would accept a lower place than the others. Layamon added to the story when he adapted Waces work into the Middle English Brut in the early 13th century, in response a Cornish carpenter built an enormous but easily transportable Round Table to prevent further dispute. Wace claims he was not the source of the Round Table, some scholars have doubted this claim, while others believe it may be true. Though the Round Table itself is not mentioned until Wace, the concept of Arthur having a court made up of many prominent warriors is much older. Geoffrey of Monmouth says that after establishing peace throughout Britain, Arthur increased his personal entourage by inviting very distinguished men from far-distant kingdoms to join it, though no Round Table appears in the early Welsh texts, Arthur is associated with various items of household furniture. A henge at Eamont Bridge near Penrith, Cumbria is known as King Arthurs Round Table, the still-visible Roman amphitheatre at Caerleon has been associated with the Round Table. and has been suggested as a possible source for the legend. The Round Table takes on new dimensions in the romances of the late 12th and early 13th century, where it becomes a symbol of the famed order of chivalry which flourishes under Arthur. In Robert de Borons Merlin, written around the 1190s, the wizard Merlin creates the Round Table in imitation of the table of the Last Supper and of Joseph of Arimatheas Holy Grail table. This table, here made for Arthurs father Uther Pendragon rather than Arthur himself, has twelve seats and this seat must remain empty until the coming of the knight who will achieve the Grail. The Didot Perceval, a continuation of Roberts work, takes up the story. The prose cycles of the 13th century, the Lancelot-Grail cycle, here it is the perfect knight Galahad, rather than Percival, who assumes the empty seat, now called the Siege Perilous. Galahads arrival marks the start of the Grail quest as well as the end of the Arthurian era, in these works the Round Table is kept by King Leodegrance of Cameliard after Uthers death, Arthur inherits it when he marries Leodegrances daughter Guinevere. Other versions treat the Round Table differently, for instance Italian Arthurian works often distinguish between the Old Table of Uthers time and Arthurs New Table, during the Middle Ages, festivals called Round Tables were celebrated throughout Europe in imitation of Arthurs court. These events featured jousting, dancing, and feasting, and in some cases attending knights assumed the identities of Arthurs entourage, the earliest of these was held in Cyprus in 1223 to celebrate a knighting. Round Tables were popular in various European countries through the rest of the Middle Ages and were at times very elaborate, René of Anjou even erected an Arthurian castle for his 1446 Round Table
Round table
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King Arthur presides at the Round Table with all of his Knights.
Round table
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Sir Galahad takes the "
Siege Perilous "
Round table
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Winchester Round Table
5.
Game programmer
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A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all
Game programmer
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The
Apple II series was a popular
video game platform during the early
home computer era. Despite being outperformed by later systems, it remained popular until the early 1990s.
Game programmer
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The
joystick was the primary input device for 1980s era games. Now game programmers must account for a wide range of input devices, but the joystick today is supported in relatively few games, though still dominant for
flight simulators.
6.
Game design
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Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game to facilitate interaction between players for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Game design can be applied both to games and, increasingly, to interactions, particularly virtual ones. Academically, game design is part of studies, while game theory studies strategic decision making. Games have historically inspired seminal research in the fields of probability, artificial intelligence, economics, applying game design to itself is a current research topic in metadesign. Sports, gambling, and board games are known, respectively, to have existed for at least nine thousand, six thousand, and four thousand years. Tabletop games played today whose descent can be traced from ancient times include chess, go, pachisi, backgammon, mahjong, mancala, the rules of these games were not codified until early modern times and their features gradually evolved and changed over time, through the folk process. Given this, these games are not considered to have had a designer or been the result of a process in the modern sense. For example, the public domain games Generala, Yacht. Today, many games, such as Taboo, Balderdash, Pictionary. Adapting traditional games to become commercial properties is an example of game design, similarly, many sports, such as soccer and baseball, are the result of folk processes, while others were designed, such as basketball, invented in 1891 by James Naismith. Technological advances have provided new media for games throughout history, the printing press allowed packs of playing cards, adapted from Mahjong tiles, to be mass-produced, leading to many new card games. Accurate topographic maps produced as lithographs and provided free to Prussian officers helped popularize wargaming, cheap bookbinding led to mass-produced board games with custom boards. Inexpensive lead figurine casting contributed to the development of miniature wargaming, cheap custom dice led to poker dice. Flying discs led to disc golf and Ultimate, personal computers contributed to the popularity of computer games, leading to the wide availability of video game consoles and video games. Smart phones have led to a proliferation of mobile games, the first games in a new medium are frequently adaptations of older games. Pong, one of the first widely disseminated video games, adapted table tennis, later games will often exploit distinctive properties of a new medium. Adapting older games and creating original games for new media are both examples of game design, Game studies or gaming theory is a discipline that deals with the critical study of games, game design, players, and their role in society and culture. Prior to the century, the academic study of games was rare and limited to fields such as history
Game design
–
A set of
poker dice and a dice cup
Game design
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Charles Darrow 's 1935 patent for
Monopoly includes specific design elements developed during the prototype phase. Prototypes are very common in the later stages of board game design, and "prototype circles" in many cities today provide an opportunity for designers to play and critique each other's games.
Game design
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All casino games are designed to mathematically favor the house. The
house edge for a
slot machine can range widely between 2 and 15 percent.
Game design
–
H. G. Wells playing
Little Wars
7.
Chris Crawford (game designer)
–
Christopher Crawford is a computer game designer and writer. He designed and programmed several important computer games in the 1980s, including Eastern Front, among developers he became known for his passionate advocacy of game design as an art form, founding both The Journal of Computer Game Design and the Computer Game Developers Conference. In 1992 Crawford withdrew from commercial development and began experimenting with ideas for a next generation interactive storytelling system. After receiving a B. S. in physics from UC Davis in 1972 and an M. S. in physics from University of Missouri in 1975, Crawford taught at a community college and the University of California. Crawford first encountered computer games at Missouri, when he met someone attempting to computerize Avalon Hills Blitzkrieg. In 1978 Crawford began selling the games and by 1979 made the discovery, he later said. He joined Atari that year, founding the Games Research Group under Alan Kay in 1982, at Atari Crawford started game work with Wizard for the VCS, but this work was abandoned and would not appear until some time later. He then turned his attention to the new Home Computer System and his first releases on this platform were Energy Czar and Scram, games written in Atari BASIC. This work was used to create Eastern Front, which is considered one of the first wargames on a microcomputer to compete with traditional paper-n-pencil games in terms of depth. He followed this with Legionnaire, based on the display engine. Another book followed, The Art of Computer Game Design, the Game Developers Conference, which in 2013 drew over 23,000 attendees, began in 1987 as a salon held in Crawfords living room with roughly 27 game design friends and associates. The gatherings original name, the Computer Game Developers Conference, would remain into the 1990s until the word Computer was dropped. While the GDC has become a prominent event in the industry, Crawford was eventually ousted from the GDC board. He eventually returned to the conference, giving lectures in both 2006 and 2001, Crawford acknowledged that his views on computer game design were unusual and controversial. In a 1986 interview with Computer Gaming World he stated that he began writing software as a hobby that became a job with the goal of writing the best possible game, Crawford said that by 1982, his goal was to pursue computer games as an art form. Crawford admitted that some called his games inaccessible, In many ways. Thats another way of saying, Crawfords games arent that much fun, and there is some merit in that. I dont strive so much for simple-minded fun, do you want a game that will punch you in the stomach or really affect you
Chris Crawford (game designer)
–
Chris Crawford at Cologne Game Lab in 2011
8.
San Jose, California
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San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2015 population of 1,026,908, it is the third most populous city in California and the tenth most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the shore of San Francisco Bay. San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California. San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Ohlone people, San Jose was founded on November 29,1777, as the Pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian town founded in Spanish Alta California. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose became the states first capital, following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 60s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from a center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U. S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California, by the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries. San Jose is considered to be a city, notable for its affluence. San Joses location within the high tech industry, as a cultural, political. San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institute. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Junípero Serra, San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated in 1846, on March 27,1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. San Jose was Californias first state capital, and hosted the first, today the Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first state capital. The city was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, in the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers, the City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor
San Jose, California
–
Images, from top down, left to right:
Downtown San Jose,
Hotel De Anza, East San Jose suburbs,
Lick Observatory,
Plaza de César Chávez
San Jose, California
–
South First Street in the 1940s
San Jose, California
–
Overhead panorama of
downtown San Jose.
San Jose, California
–
Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley. See an up-to-the-minute view of San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera
9.
Don Daglow
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Don Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He founded long-standing game developer Stormfront Studios in 1988, in 2008 Daglow was honored at the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards for Neverwinter Nights pioneering role in MMORPG development. In 2003 he was the recipient of the CGE Achievement Award for groundbreaking accomplishments that shaped the Video Game Industry, in 1971 Daglow was studying playwriting at Pomona College in Claremont, California. A computer terminal connected to the Claremont Colleges PDP-10 mainframe computer was set up in his dorm, unlike Daglow and Flinn, most college students in the early 1970s lost all access to computers when they graduated, since home computers had not yet been invented. Some of Daglows titles were distributed to universities by the DECUS program-sharing organization and it appeared ten years after John Burgeson wrote the first baseball simulation game, on an IBM1620 at an IBM lab in Akron, Ohio. Daglow continued to expand Baseball throughout the 1970s, and ported the game to the Apple II in 1981, the simulation model in the Apple version in turn was ported to the Intellivision in 1982 as the basis for Intellivision World Series Baseball. Star Trek — One of several popular Star Trek computer games widely played in American colleges during this era, ecala — Improved version of the ELIZA computer conversation program. This project paved the way for his work by suggesting new kinds of game interfaces. Dungeon — The first computer role playing game, based on the then-new Dungeons & Dragons gaming system, the game was steadily expanded over the following five years. Spanish Translator — As he experimented with parsers he created a context-sensitive Spanish translation program, Killer Shrews — A simulation game based on the cult sci-fi film The Killer Shrews. The player has not many decisions to make, only when to try to escape the island during the simulation of the depleting of the food that is there. Educational Dungeon — An attempt to make rote computer-aided instruction programs more interesting by taking Dungeon, in 1980 Daglow was hired as one of the original five in-house Intellivision programmers at Mattel during the first console wars. Intellivision titles where he did programming and extensive ongoing design include, utopia — the first sim game or god game. Utopia was a hit and received wide press coverage for its unique design in an arcade-dominated era. The game has been named to two different video game halls of fame, Intellivision World Series Baseball — the first video game to use multiple camera angles to display the action rather than a static playfield, developed with Eddie Dombrower. During the Video Game Crash of 1983 Daglow was recruited to join Electronic Arts by founder Trip Hawkins, One of the earliest EA Sports titles, EWB was later named to the computer game Hall of Fame by Computer Gaming World and GameSpy. CGW named it as one of the top 25 games of all time in 1996, Daglow spent 1987–88 at Brøderbund as head of the companys Entertainment and Education Division. Although he supervised the creation of games like Jordan Mechners Prince of Persia, Star Wars, the Ancient Art of War series and his role was executive rather than creative
Don Daglow
–
Don Daglow at the
Game Developers Conference in 2010
10.
Brenda Laurel
–
Brenda Laurel, Ph. D. works as an independent scholar and consultant. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusiveness in video games, a pioneer in developing virtual reality, a public speaker and she is also a board member of several companies and organizations. She was founder and chair of the Graduate Design Program at California College of the Arts. and she has worked for Atari, co-founded the game development firm Purple Moon, and served as an interaction design consultant for multiple companies including Sony Pictures, Apple, and Citibank. Laurel received a Bachelor of Arts from DePauw University and she received her Masters of Fine Arts as well as her Ph. D. from Ohio State University. Laurel is one of the foremost theorists regarding developing videogames for girls and she posited that while the early videogame industry focused almost exclusively upon developing products aimed at young men, girls were not inherently disinterested in the medium. Rather, girls were interested in different kinds of gaming experiences. Her research uncovered that young women tended to prefer experiences based around complex social interaction, verbal skills, the game business arose from computer programs that were written by and for young men in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They worked so well that they formed a very lucrative industry fairly quickly, but what worked for that demographic absolutely did not work for most girls and women. In 1996, Laurel founded Purple Moon, the first American software company to cater games to young girls between the ages of 8 and 14. Laurels vision was to create games for girls that focused more on real life decision-making rather than creating games that focused on appearances, the company was an experiment in turning research on girls gaming preferences into marketable video games. The company produced ten games primarily divided into two series, Rockett, which focused around a young girls quotidian interactions, and the more meditative Secret Path series and it was eventually bought by Mattel in 1999. Purple Moon received criticism for focusing on designing games based on gender, Virtual reality, according to Laurel, is less characterized by its imaginary or unreal elements than by its multisensory representation of objects, be they real or imaginary. While discussions around virtual reality tended to center on visual representations, audio, Laurels 1994 Placeholder installation at Banff Center for the Arts—a collaboration with Rachel Strickland—explored these multisensory possibilities. ISBN9781890278281 Secret paths in the forest, Purple Moon Media, Convivial Design Inc, ISBN9781890278168 Purple Moon Virtual Reality Brenda Laurels home page Brenda Laurel at TED Games for girls Designing for Interaction Interview
Brenda Laurel
–
Laurel at SXSW in 2004
11.
Brian Moriarty
–
Brian Moriarty is an American video game developer who authored three of the original Infocom interactive fiction titles, Wishbringer, Trinity, and Beyond Zork, as well as Loom for LucasArts. Prior to joining Infocom, Moriarty was a Technical Editor for the Atari 8-bit computer magazine ANALOG Computing and he wrote two text adventures for ANALOG, Adventure in the 5th Dimension and Crash Dive. He also worked on Tachyon, an adaptation of Ataris Quantum arcade game, Moriarty joined Lucasfilm Games, later known as LucasArts, in 1988 at the invitation of Noah Falstein. There he designed his first graphic adventure game, Loom, published in 1990, though the game was a commercial success and Moriarty had an idea for sequels which were briefly entertained, he opted to move on to other projects. The project had a lengthy and troubled development, with Moriarty leading the second of ultimately three incarnations the game underwent before finally shipping in 1995. When his version of the collapsed in 1993, Moriarty departed LucasArts. On occasion, Moriarty delivers public lectures, one of which has turned into an amateur dramatic production. He is currently a professor of Interactive Media and Game Design at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Adventure in the 5th Dimension Crash Dive. Tachyon Wishbringer Trinity Beyond Zork Timesink Loom Forge The Fold Young Indiana Jones at the Worlds Fair The Dig Loadstar, The Legend Of Tully Bodine - Credited for interactive design
Brian Moriarty
–
Brian Moriarty stands beside Infocom's
DECSYSTEM-20 mainframe (1984)
12.
Gordon Walton
–
Gordon Walton, Jr. is an American video game developer and executive producer who has worked with many North American online game companies, from Maxis to Electronic Arts to Sony Online to Bioware. Since 1977 he has developed over thirty games, and overseen development of hundreds more, working as a producer. He is currently Executive Producer of the Kickstarter-backed MMORPG Crowfall, Walton was born on March 2,1956 in Houston, Texas, to Conrad G. Walton, Sr. an architect, and Rilda Akin, an artist. Roberta Agnes Hensley and Evelyn Coleman Lowey are his siblings and he attended Spring Woods High School in Houston, and then enlisted in the U. S. Army from 1974-1977, attaining the rank of Sergeant. He was stationed at Fort Ord, Fort Gordon, Fort Hood, Fort Chaffee, in 1977 he left the army to enroll at Texas A&M University, and continued serving in the U. S. National Guard until 1979. In 1981, he received his BS degree in computer science, from 1990-1992 he also served briefly in the US Army Reserve. He played his first computer game in 1977 on the PLATO system, in 1984, he co-founded Applied Computing with Don Gilman, and he was development manager for both Three-Sixty Pacific and Konami of America, Inc. After Kesmai, Walton moved on to managing Ultima Online at Origin Systems, at Maxis, he was executive producer on The Sims Online. He worked on the MMOG Star Wars, The Old Republic at Biowares studio in Austin until January 2011 and he was last employed at the social gaming company Playdom and is currently starting a new company in 2013. He is also active in the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences and IGDA and he is on the advisory boards for the Full Sail University, University of Texas at Austin and Austin Community College Game Programs, while informally advising other educational programs. Walton currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Laura Ann Miskines Walton, the Sims Online, Electronic Arts Inc. Ultima Online, Third Dawn, Electronic Arts Inc, Ultima Online, Renaissance, Electronic Arts Inc. Air Warrior II, iEntertainment Network Air Warrior III, iEntertainment Network Harpoon Classic 97, iEntertainment Network Harpoon, Three Sixty Pacific PT-109, Spectrum Holobyte, reader Rabbit NFL Challenge, XOr The Playroom MobyGames bio
Gordon Walton
–
Gordon Walton at
Kesmai in 1998
13.
Holiday Inn
–
Holiday Inn is an American brand of hotels, and a subsidiary InterContinental Hotels Group. Founded as a U. S. motel chain, it has grown to be one of the worlds largest hotel chains, the hotel chain is based in Atlanta, Georgia. C. Their first hotel/motel opened in August 1952 as Holiday Inn Hotel Courts at 4925 Summer Avenue in Memphis, in the early 1990s, it was demolished, leaving behind a plaque commemorating the site. Wilson partnered with Wallace E. Johnson to build additional motels on the roads entering Memphis, at the time Holiday Inns corporate headquarters was in a converted plumbing shed owned by Johnson. In 1953, the company built its three hotels which, along with their first hotel, covered the roads that led to Memphis. The second motel was built on U. S.51 South and it was followed by two more in 1953, one on Highway 51 North, and another on U. S.61. Upon Johnsons death in 1988, Wilson was quoted as saying and he was the greatest partner a man could ever have. What they started together, with Wilson later helming the project, became the Holiday Corporation, by the beginning of 1956, there were 23 Holiday Inns operating with seven more due to open by the years end. In 1957, Wilson began marketing the chain as Holiday Inn of America, mandating its properties be standardized, clean, predictable, family-friendly, and readily accessible to road travelers. The chain grew dramatically as a result, with 50 locations across the country by 1958,100 by 1959,500 by 1964, and the 1, 000th Holiday Inn opening in 1968. In 1965, the chain launched Holidex, a reservation system where a visitor to any Holiday Inn could obtain reservations, by teleprinter. The only comparable systems at the time were operated by airlines, by June 1972, with over 1,400 Holiday Inns worldwide, Wilson was featured on the cover of Time magazine and the franchises motto became The Worlds Innkeeper. In the 1960s, Holiday Inn began franchising and opening campgrounds under the Holiday Inn Trav-L-Park brand and these recreational campgrounds were listed in the Holiday Inn directories. S. and Interstate highways. The arrangement was copied by competing lodging chains and major oil companies during the mid-to-late 1960s, the Gulf/Holiday Inn arrangement ended around 1982. In 1971, the company constructed the Holiday Inn University and Conference Center, in 1973, the company built the Olive Branch Airport north of the University as a home base for its corporate aircraft. Wilson also developed the Orange Lake Resort and Country Club near Orlando, the acquisition of Trailways in 1968 lasted until 1979, when Holiday Inn sold Trailways to private investor Henry Lea Hillman Sr of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the years during which Trailways was a subsidiary of Holiday Inn, Wilson retired from Holiday Inn in 1979. As of 2014, Wilsons family still operates hotels as part of the Kemmons Wilson Companies of Memphis, the Great Sign was the roadside sign used by Holiday Inn during its original era of expansion from the 1950s to 1970s
Holiday Inn
–
A Holiday Inn in
Belfast City Centre,
Northern Ireland
Holiday Inn
–
Holiday Inn Hotels
Holiday Inn
–
The iconic "Great Sign" was a familiar sight on US highways in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s
Holiday Inn
–
Holiday Inn clock in
Sutton, Greater London
14.
Milpitas, California
–
Milpitas /mɪlˈpiːtəs/ is a city in Santa Clara County, California. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the end of State Route 237. With Alameda County bordering directly on the north, Milpitas sits in the extreme northeast section of the South Bay, bordering the East Bay, Milpitas is also located within the Silicon Valley. The corporate headquarters of Maxtor, LSI Corporation, Adaptec, Intersil, FireEye, Viavi and Lumentum, KLA-Tencor, SanDisk, Flex and Cisco also have offices in Milpitas. The population was 66,790 at the 2010 census, Milpitas was first inhabited by the Tamyen, a linguistic subgroup of the Muwekma Ohlone people who had resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for thousands of years. The Ohlone Indians lived a life based on everyday hunting and gathering. Some of the Ohlone lived in villages within what is now Milpitas, including sites underneath what are now the Calvary Assembly of God Church. Archaeological evidence gathered from Ohlone graves at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in 1993 revealed a rich trade with tribes from Sacramento to Monterey. During the Spanish expeditions of the late 18th century, several missions were founded in the San Francisco Bay Area, during the mission period, Milpitas served as a crossroads between Mission San José de Guadalupe in modern-day Fremont and Mission Santa Clara de Asis, in present Santa Clara. Jose Maria Alviso was the son of Francisco Xavier Alviso and Maria Bojorquez, both landowners had built prominent adobe homes on their properties. Today, both still exist and are the oldest structures in Milpitas. The seriously eroded walls of the Jose Higuera Adobe, now in Higuera Adobe Park, are encapsulated in a shell built c.1970 by Marian Weller. The Alviso Adobe can be mostly in its original form with one kitchen addition made by the Cuciz family after they purchased the adobe from the Gleason family in 1922. Alviso Adobe History Park is to be opened, after the restoration of the adobe and outbuildings is completed, as an educational museum with historic items, trees, buildings. In the 1850s, large numbers of Americans of English, German, the Burnett, Rose, Dempsey, Jacklin, Trimble, Ayer, Parks, Wool, Weller, Minnis, and Evans are among the early settlers of Milpitas. These early settlers farmed the land that was once the ranchos, some set up businesses on what was then called Mission Road between Calaveras Road and the Alviso-Milpitas Road. By the late 20th century this became known as the Midtown district. Yet another influx of immigration came in the 1870s and 1880s as Portuguese sharecroppers from the Azores came to farm the Milpitas hillsides, many of the Azoreans had such locally well-known surnames like Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Nunes, Spangler, Serpa, and Silva
Milpitas, California
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Milpitas City Hall
Milpitas, California
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Jose Maria Alviso Adobe, ca. 1920
Milpitas, California
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Monument Peak is the most visible landmark in Milpitas and has long been a symbol of Milpitas. (Click on the image for a detailed description)
Milpitas, California
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The new Milpitas Library (2009) integrates the historic
Milpitas Grammar School building (1915).
15.
Ernest W. Adams
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International Game Developers Association is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization, in recognition of the wide-ranging, multidisciplinary nature of interactive entertainment, there are supposedly no barriers to entry. The IGDA was founded in 1994 by Ernest W. Adams and was known as the Computer Game Developers Association. The need for an association for game developers was not apparent until the congressional hearings surrounding Mortal Kombat. In December 2012, Kate Edwards was appointed director after Gordon Bellamy. The association as of July 2014 has been working with the FBI to deal with the harassment of developers. Chapters are intended to provide a way to connect game developers within local communities. Chapters vary greatly in size and meeting attendance and they provide forums, for example, for discussions on current issues in the computer gaming industry and demos of the latest games. Special Interest Groups, better known as SIGs, are intended to spark developer interest in a specific topics or disciplines, some SIGs sponsor events, such as creating the Global Game Jam. Committees are generally formed by the IGDA to conduct research into a subject, normally for a short period, some, however, are semi-permanent, and produce yearly reports. Some of these lead to gaming industry standards. IGDA Leadership Track at Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo - The IGDA Leadership Track at SIEGE will encompass a range of topics pertinent to the heads of game studios. Global Game Jam - Now managed by the Global Game Jam, Inc. the Global Game Jam is an event that organizes developers, artists and game designers to create games within a 48-hour period. IGDA Leadership Forum - Focuses on advancing the state of the art in game production and management, during the GDC2013 a party was hosted by co-presenters IGDA and the start-up incubator YetiZen. The event featured at least three girls in white outfits–one was in a skimpy t-shirt one was in this weird furry get-up–dancing, on the day following the party IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards issued an apology stating We regret that the IGDA was involved in this situation. We do not condone activities that objectify or demean women or any group of people. On November 20,2014 the IGDA added a link to A Twitter tool to block some of the worst offenders in the recent wave of harassment to their Online Harassment Resources web page. However, due to the method of the lists generation several IGDA members including the Chairman of IGDA Puerto Rico Roberto Rosario were added to the list of harassers and these errors resulted in the IGDA removing the link to the tool on November 22
Ernest W. Adams
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Ernest Adams at the
Game Developers Conference in 2010
16.
Computer Game Developers Association
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International Game Developers Association is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization, in recognition of the wide-ranging, multidisciplinary nature of interactive entertainment, there are supposedly no barriers to entry. The IGDA was founded in 1994 by Ernest W. Adams and was known as the Computer Game Developers Association. The need for an association for game developers was not apparent until the congressional hearings surrounding Mortal Kombat. In December 2012, Kate Edwards was appointed director after Gordon Bellamy. The association as of July 2014 has been working with the FBI to deal with the harassment of developers. Chapters are intended to provide a way to connect game developers within local communities. Chapters vary greatly in size and meeting attendance and they provide forums, for example, for discussions on current issues in the computer gaming industry and demos of the latest games. Special Interest Groups, better known as SIGs, are intended to spark developer interest in a specific topics or disciplines, some SIGs sponsor events, such as creating the Global Game Jam. Committees are generally formed by the IGDA to conduct research into a subject, normally for a short period, some, however, are semi-permanent, and produce yearly reports. Some of these lead to gaming industry standards. IGDA Leadership Track at Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo - The IGDA Leadership Track at SIEGE will encompass a range of topics pertinent to the heads of game studios. Global Game Jam - Now managed by the Global Game Jam, Inc. the Global Game Jam is an event that organizes developers, artists and game designers to create games within a 48-hour period. IGDA Leadership Forum - Focuses on advancing the state of the art in game production and management, during the GDC2013 a party was hosted by co-presenters IGDA and the start-up incubator YetiZen. The event featured at least three girls in white outfits–one was in a skimpy t-shirt one was in this weird furry get-up–dancing, on the day following the party IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards issued an apology stating We regret that the IGDA was involved in this situation. We do not condone activities that objectify or demean women or any group of people. On November 20,2014 the IGDA added a link to A Twitter tool to block some of the worst offenders in the recent wave of harassment to their Online Harassment Resources web page. However, due to the method of the lists generation several IGDA members including the Chairman of IGDA Puerto Rico Roberto Rosario were added to the list of harassers and these errors resulted in the IGDA removing the link to the tool on November 22
Computer Game Developers Association
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International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
17.
Moscone Center
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Moscone Center /mɒsˈkoʊni/ is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. It comprises three main halls, Two underground halls underneath Yerba Buena Gardens, known as Moscone North and Moscone South, as mayor, Moscone convened a special committee of proponents and opponents of a convention center. Hearings were held throughout SF seeking citizen input, a compromise was reached which was supported by Moscone. He put the matter on the ballot and it passed overwhelmingly, labor organizations supported the construction of the Center, and were granted full labor jurisdiction. All labor in the Convention Center is performed by I. A. T. S. E, Local 16 Stagehands, Sign and Display Workers Local #510, Brotherhood of Teamsters local #65, IBEW Local #6, Security I. A. T. S. E. Local #B-18, Communications Workers of America, and the Hotel & Restaurant Workers Local #2, mcCune Audio/Video/Lighting is the on site rental service. Moscone Center was featured in the 1995 movie, The Net, the Democratic Party of the United States held its 1984 convention at the Convention Center, nominating Walter Mondale for President of the United States and Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President. The expansion of Moscone North and Moscone West in 1992 and 2003, designed by Gensler, a large solar electricity system was installed on the roof of the center in March 2004. The installation of this system marked San Franciscos first major step towards obtaining all municipal energy from pollution-free sources, with the 60, 000-square-foot solar array in place, San Francisco boasts one of the largest city-owned solar installations in the country. The electricity generated by the system, combined with savings from energy efficiency measures. The Amtrak bus stop at Moscone Center also transports riders to the Emeryville Amtrak station, Moscone North and South underwent a two-year renovation project completed in 2012. The renewal project was designed by HOK, the original architect. The 2004 solar installation was done by PowerLight Corporation
Moscone Center
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Colored flags outside Moscone Center
Moscone Center
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Moscone Center at Sunset
18.
San Francisco, California
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
San Francisco, California
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San Francisco and the
Golden Gate Bridge from
Marin Headlands
San Francisco, California
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Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)
San Francisco, California
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1853
United States Coast Survey Map
San Francisco, California
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Francis Samuel Marryat, Hilltop of San Francisco, California, Looking toward the Bay, 1849. M.& N. Hanhart Chromolithograph
19.
South of Market (San Francisco)
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SoMa is home to many of the citys museums, to the headquarters of several major software and Internet companies, and to the Moscone Conference Center. The areas boundaries are Market Street to the northwest, San Francisco Bay to the northeast, Mission Creek to the southeast and it is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel and perpendicular to Market Street. As with many neighborhoods, the boundaries of the South of Market area are fuzzy. From 1848 until the construction of the Central Freeway in the 1950s, since the 1950s, the boundary has been either 10th Street, 11th Street, or the Central Freeway. Similarly, the entire Mission Bay neighborhood may or may not be counted as part of SoMa, redevelopment agencies, social service agencies, and community activists frequently exclude the more prosperous areas between the waterfront and 3rd Street. Some social service agencies and nonprofits count the economically distressed area around 6th, 7th, the terms South of Market and SoMa refer to both a comparatively large district of the city as well as a much smaller neighborhood. Before being called South of Market this area was called South of the Slot, while the cable cars have long since disappeared from Market Street, some old timers still refer to this area as South of the Slot. Since 1847, the name of the South of Market area has been the 100 Vara Survey or simply 100 Vara for short. Since the mid-20th century, the name has been gradually forgotten, and today is found mainly in history books, legal documents, title deeds. At the time, the streets of San Francisco were aligned approximately with the points, running north to south. Each block was divided into six lots 50 varas on a side. e, northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast. He also decided to make the new blocks twice as long and twice as wide, finally, OFarrell created a grand promenade linking the old pueblo with the new subdivision, Market Street. Since then, downtown San Francisco north of Lower Market Street has been known as 50 Vara. Rincon Hill became an enclave for the wealthy, while nearby South Park became an enclave for the middle class. The neighborhood became a largely working-class and lower-middle-class community of recent European immigrants, sweatshops, power stations, flophouses, the 1906 earthquake completely destroyed the area, and many of the quakes fatalities occurred there. Following the quake, the area was rebuilt with wider than usual streets, the construction of the Bay Bridge and U. S. Route 101 during the 1930s saw large swaths of the area demolished, including most of the original Rincon Hill. The waterfront redevelopment of the Embarcadero in the 1950s pushed a new population into this area in the 1960s, the incipient gay community, and the leather community in particular. From 1962 until 1982, the gay community grew and thrived throughout South of Market, most visibly along Folsom Street
South of Market (San Francisco)
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Buildings in the South of Market neighborhood
South of Market (San Francisco)
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The
Moscone Center.
South of Market (San Francisco)
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The South Beach Section of SOMA as well as
AT&T Park
South of Market (San Francisco)
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South Park in the SOMA District
20.
IGDA
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International Game Developers Association is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization, in recognition of the wide-ranging, multidisciplinary nature of interactive entertainment, there are supposedly no barriers to entry. The IGDA was founded in 1994 by Ernest W. Adams and was known as the Computer Game Developers Association. The need for an association for game developers was not apparent until the congressional hearings surrounding Mortal Kombat. In December 2012, Kate Edwards was appointed director after Gordon Bellamy. The association as of July 2014 has been working with the FBI to deal with the harassment of developers. Chapters are intended to provide a way to connect game developers within local communities. Chapters vary greatly in size and meeting attendance and they provide forums, for example, for discussions on current issues in the computer gaming industry and demos of the latest games. Special Interest Groups, better known as SIGs, are intended to spark developer interest in a specific topics or disciplines, some SIGs sponsor events, such as creating the Global Game Jam. Committees are generally formed by the IGDA to conduct research into a subject, normally for a short period, some, however, are semi-permanent, and produce yearly reports. Some of these lead to gaming industry standards. IGDA Leadership Track at Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo - The IGDA Leadership Track at SIEGE will encompass a range of topics pertinent to the heads of game studios. Global Game Jam - Now managed by the Global Game Jam, Inc. the Global Game Jam is an event that organizes developers, artists and game designers to create games within a 48-hour period. IGDA Leadership Forum - Focuses on advancing the state of the art in game production and management, during the GDC2013 a party was hosted by co-presenters IGDA and the start-up incubator YetiZen. The event featured at least three girls in white outfits–one was in a skimpy t-shirt one was in this weird furry get-up–dancing, on the day following the party IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards issued an apology stating We regret that the IGDA was involved in this situation. We do not condone activities that objectify or demean women or any group of people. On November 20,2014 the IGDA added a link to A Twitter tool to block some of the worst offenders in the recent wave of harassment to their Online Harassment Resources web page. However, due to the method of the lists generation several IGDA members including the Chairman of IGDA Puerto Rico Roberto Rosario were added to the list of harassers and these errors resulted in the IGDA removing the link to the tool on November 22
IGDA
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International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
21.
Bullwhip
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A bullwhip is a single-tailed whip, usually made of braided leather, designed as a tool for working with livestock. Bullwhips are pastoral tools, traditionally used to control livestock in open country, many modern sport whip crackers claim that the bullwhip was rarely, if ever, used to strike cattle, but this is a matter for debate. The origins of the bullwhip are also a matter for debate and, difficulties in tracing its development also arise from regional and national variations in nomenclature. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as rural economies became increasingly mechanized, by the middle of the 20th century, bullwhip making was a dying craft, with only a few craftsmen left making good quality whips. Whip cracking competitions focus on the completion of complex multiple cracking routines and precise target work, whereas, in times past, the bullwhip was designed for one basic, main purpose, modern whip makers design their whips for different specific purposes and to suit different throwing styles. Regardless of their end use, all bullwhips have certain common features. A bullwhip consists of a section, a thong, a fall. A wrist loop may also be present, although its purpose is for hanging ones whip on a hook. The main portion of the length is made up of a braided body or thong. Made of many strips of leather, the number of braids or plaits is an important factor in the construction of the whip, often the thong is multi-layered, having one or more bellies in the center. Quality whips have at least two bellies, made of braided leather like the surface of the whip, though with fewer plaits, lower-quality whips may have no bellies at all, and are sometimes stuffed with materials such as newspaper which will break down with use. Unlike in the Australian stock whip, the thong connects in line with the handle, the handle is usually short, being between 8 and 12 inches long. While some whips have a wooden grip, others have an intricately braided leather covered handle. Some handles swivel, making it easier to do certain types of unsophisticated cracks but making it harder to do others, the Australians introduced a longer handled bullwhip to the US, where the bullwhips traditionally had shorter handles. The longer handled whip, with a handle of 10-14 inches, bullwhips are usually measured from the butt of the handle to the end of the plaiting of the thong. The thong typically terminates at a fall hitch—a series of half hitches that neatly tie the replaceable fall to the whip, whips range in length from 3 ft to very long bullwhips of 20 ft with some examples being even longer. A fall is a piece of leather between 10 and 30 inches in length. It was traditionally made to be due to the extreme stresses the very end of the whip was subjected to as it was cracked
Bullwhip
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A bullwhip
Bullwhip
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A cracker, which is part of a bullwhip or
stockwhip.
22.
International Game Developers Association
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International Game Developers Association is the professional association for over 12,000 video and computer game developers worldwide. It is incorporated in the United States as a non-profit organization, in recognition of the wide-ranging, multidisciplinary nature of interactive entertainment, there are supposedly no barriers to entry. The IGDA was founded in 1994 by Ernest W. Adams and was known as the Computer Game Developers Association. The need for an association for game developers was not apparent until the congressional hearings surrounding Mortal Kombat. In December 2012, Kate Edwards was appointed director after Gordon Bellamy. The association as of July 2014 has been working with the FBI to deal with the harassment of developers. Chapters are intended to provide a way to connect game developers within local communities. Chapters vary greatly in size and meeting attendance and they provide forums, for example, for discussions on current issues in the computer gaming industry and demos of the latest games. Special Interest Groups, better known as SIGs, are intended to spark developer interest in a specific topics or disciplines, some SIGs sponsor events, such as creating the Global Game Jam. Committees are generally formed by the IGDA to conduct research into a subject, normally for a short period, some, however, are semi-permanent, and produce yearly reports. Some of these lead to gaming industry standards. IGDA Leadership Track at Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo - The IGDA Leadership Track at SIEGE will encompass a range of topics pertinent to the heads of game studios. Global Game Jam - Now managed by the Global Game Jam, Inc. the Global Game Jam is an event that organizes developers, artists and game designers to create games within a 48-hour period. IGDA Leadership Forum - Focuses on advancing the state of the art in game production and management, during the GDC2013 a party was hosted by co-presenters IGDA and the start-up incubator YetiZen. The event featured at least three girls in white outfits–one was in a skimpy t-shirt one was in this weird furry get-up–dancing, on the day following the party IGDA Executive Director Kate Edwards issued an apology stating We regret that the IGDA was involved in this situation. We do not condone activities that objectify or demean women or any group of people. On November 20,2014 the IGDA added a link to A Twitter tool to block some of the worst offenders in the recent wave of harassment to their Online Harassment Resources web page. However, due to the method of the lists generation several IGDA members including the Chairman of IGDA Puerto Rico Roberto Rosario were added to the list of harassers and these errors resulted in the IGDA removing the link to the tool on November 22
International Game Developers Association
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International Game Developers Association (IGDA)
23.
UBM TechWeb
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UBM plc is a global business-to-business events organiser headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It has a history as a multinational media company. UBM is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE250 Index, the history of the companies that now make up UBM stretches back almost two hundred years. UBM businesses still publish many other titles that were launched in the 19th century, including Building magazine, launched in 1843 by Joseph Hansom, the company was founded in 1918 as United Newspapers by David Lloyd George to acquire the Daily Chronicle and Lloyds Weekly Newspaper. In 1929, the merged with Provincial Newspapers, an owner of regional papers in the north. The company continued for decades as a newspaper publisher, making acquisitions such as Yorkshire Post Newspapers in 1969. It acquired PR Newswire in 1982, in 1985, it bought Express Newspapers and continued to publish the Daily Express for some 15 years. It changed its name to United News & Media in 1995, sold its regional papers in 1998, in 2000, it sold the Daily Express to Richard Desmond and adopted the name of United Business Media. It went on to acquire Commonwealth Business Media for $152 million in 2006, in 2008, UBM moved its tax headquarters to Ireland, but in 2012, the company announced its intent to move its tax base back to the United Kingdom. In 2012, PA Group, the parent company of the Press Association, by 2015, UBM had rebranded itself as primarily focused on B2B events. Reflecting this,82 percent of its business in 2016 derived from events, MAI was part of a consortium which bid for the ITV south and south east area, which formed Meridian Broadcasting in 1991. In 1996, MAI merged with United Newspapers to form United News & Media, the resulting company owned the Daily Express newspaper, Meridian, Anglia, and a large shareholding in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television, the owners of Yorkshire Television and Tyne Tees Television. The stake in Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television was sold to Granada, United News and Media later agreed to buy Scottish Televisions 20% stake in HTV and on 28 June 1997, HTV was taken over fully by UNM for £370 million. In 1999, plans emerged of a merger between UNM and rival Carlton, however these failed when it appeared that Meridian would have to be sold off as a condition of the deal. In 2005 UBM re-focused on two businesses, PR Newswire, a global news distribution business, and CMP, an international events, print. It disposed of NOP which was acquired by GfK for £383 million in 2005, in September 2006, NewBay Media acquired CMP Entertainment Media from United Business Media. On 1 July 2008, as part of a reorganisation of the structure of the Group, United Business Media Limited was created as a new holding company. UBML is UK-listed and incorporated in Jersey, in 2010 the principal holding company of the United Business Media group was organised into five operating segments, Events, TD & M, Data Services, Online and Print
UBM TechWeb
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UBM plc
24.
Mobile phone
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A mobile phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area. The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the systems of a mobile phone operator. Most modern mobile telephone services use a network architecture, and, therefore. Mobile phones which offer these and more general computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to seven billion, penetrating 100% of the global population. In first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone manufacturers were Samsung, Apple, a handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a pocket-size folding telephone with a thin carbon microphone. Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships, the race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. These 0G systems were not cellular, supported few simultaneous calls, the first handheld mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing c.4.4 lbs. The first commercial automated cellular network was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and this was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology, in 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991, the digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators, ten years later, in 2001, the third generation was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on the WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3. 5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G enhancements based on the high-speed packet access family, allowing UMTS networks to have data transfer speeds. By 2009, it had become clear that, at point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by the growth of bandwidth-intensive applications. Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to ten-fold over existing 3G technologies
Mobile phone
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Evolution of mobile phones, through early
smartphone
Mobile phone
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Martin Cooper of Motorola made the first publicized handheld mobile phone call on a prototype DynaTAC model on April 4, 1973. This is a reenactment in 2007.
Mobile phone
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The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X. First commercially available, hand-held cellular mobile phone, 1984
Mobile phone
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Typical mobile phone
SIM card
25.
Video Games Live
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Video Games Live is a concert series created and produced by Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects. The concerts are conducted by Emmanuel Fratianni, Video Games Live was first conceived by Wall and Tallarico, who spent three years planning the show. During the planning, the technology needed to allow the master to communicate with the performers. The concert debuted on July 6,2005 at the Hollywood Bowl, three concerts were held the first year. In 2006, the concert re-launched with an 11-show world tour, the concert was expanded to 30 cities in 2007 and 47 cities in 2008. More than 70 shows were held in 2009 alone, each concert is performed by a local symphonic orchestra and local professional musicians. Video Games Live features music from video games from all eras, music from more recent games, such as Final Fantasy, Halo, World of Warcraft, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, Kingdom Hearts, and Metal Gear Solid have been performed. Other segments feature retro arcade games such as Tetris and Asteroids, Video footage of each game is shown during its segment. The concerts often feature solo performers, martin Leung, who became known on the Internet for playing video game songs on a piano while blindfolded, routinely performed during the concerts between 2006-2012. Also discovered on the internet, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Laura Intravia appears at the shows often as well, VGL also occasionally features local video game cover bands like The Megas and Random Encounter. During performances Tallarico also plays guitar for some segments, from worldbeat-like folk for Chrono Trigger to heavy metal for Final Fantasy VII, the show features several interactive segments where audience members are invited on stage to play video games while the orchestra plays music to match the game. Games such as Frogger, Space Invaders, Donkey Kong, Video Games Live, Volume 1, is a recording of various segments from multiple shows, was released on July 22,2008. The music on the album was performed by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, Video Games Live, Level 2 was released as a DVD, Blu-ray and CD on October 19,2010 by Shout. The music was performed by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and debuted at #8 on the Billboard charts, Video Games Live, Level 3 was released in 2014. It was funded by 5,679 fans on Kickstarter beating its goal of $250,000 by reaching $285,081. Unlike the previous albums, this one will be recorded in a studio featuring an orchestra, a 60-person choir. Each segment will be arranged and orchestrated by their original composers and use input from the game designers, developers
Video Games Live
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October 24, 2008 Video Games Live performance
Video Games Live
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Video Games Live logo
26.
Tabletop game
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Tabletop game is a general term used to refer to board games, card games, dice games, miniatures wargames, tile-based games and other games that are normally played on a table or other flat surface. The term is used to distinguish types of games from sports. The term is used to distinguish role-playing games from role-playing video games and LARPs. Another related term is a hobby game, Tabletop games can be classified according to the general form, or equipment utilized, Games like chess and draughts are examples of games belonging to the board game category. Other games, however, use various attributes and cannot be classified unambiguously, for several of these categories there are sub-categories and even sub-sub-categories or genres. For instance, German-style board games, board wargames, and Roll-and-move games are all types of games that differ markedly in style. As an alternative to classifying games by equipment, they can also be classified according to the elements of chance involved. In game theory, two different elements of chance can play a role, Chance due to outcome uncertainty. Games in which outcome uncertainty plays a role are referred to as stochastic games as opposed to deterministic games, Chance due to state uncertainty, e. g. due to the opponents position or cards not being visible, or due to the simultaneous move character of the game. Games in which state uncertainty plays a role are referred to as partial or imperfect information games as opposed to full or perfect information games, examples of the chance classification for some well-known tabletop games are given in the table below. List of organizations sponsor events featuring tabletop games, Board Game Geek organizes BGG. Additionally, many colleges have student run organizations pertaining solely to table top gaming, the Collegiate Association of Table Top Gamers is one such organization that has a few chapters at different schools. TableTop is a web series about tabletop games and it was created by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day and is hosted by Wheaton. TableTop is published on Felicia Days YouTube channel, Geek & Sundry, in each episode, following a brief explanation of one or more tabletop games, Wheaton plays the games with guests, usually web or TV personalities. A wide range of gaming titles have been played, from classic German-style board games and family games to RPGs. International TableTop Day is celebrated every spring all over the world, in 2014 it took place in 80 countries at over 3,000 events. List of tabletop game components Tabletop Simulator
Tabletop game
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Chess has been a popular board game for centuries
27.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
London
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Palace of Westminster,
Buckingham Palace and
Central London skyline
London
London
London
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The name London may derive from the
River Thames
28.
The Hollywood Reporter
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Headquartered in Los Angeles, THR is part of the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group, a group of properties that includes Billboard and SpinMedia. It is owned by Eldridge Industries, a company owned by an executive of its previous owner. Under Janice Min, a faltering THR was relaunched in 2010 as a weekly print magazine with a revamped, continuously updated website, as well as mobile. THR was founded in 1930 by William R, billy Wilkerson as Hollywoods first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3,1930, and featured Wilkersons front-page Tradeviews column, the newspaper appeared Monday to Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday to Friday from 1940. Wilkerson ran the THR until his death in September 1962, although his final column appeared 18 months prior, from the late 1930s, Wilkerson used THR to push the view that the industry was a communist stronghold. In particular, he opposed the screenplay writers trade union, the Screen Writers Guild, in 1946 the Guild considered creating an American Authors Authority to hold copyright for writers, instead of ownership passing to the studios. Wilkerson devoted his Tradeviews column to the issue on July 29,1946 and he went to confession before publishing it, knowing the damage it would cause, but was apparently encouraged by the priest to go ahead with it. The column contained the first industry names, including Dalton Trumbo and Howard Koch, on became the Hollywood blacklist. Eight of the 11 people Wilkerson named were among the Hollywood Ten who were blacklisted after hearings in 1947 by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In 1997 THR reporter David Robb wrote a story about the newspapers involvement, for the blacklists 65th anniversary in 2012, the THR published a lengthy investigative piece about Wilkersons role, by reporters Gary Baum and Daniel Miller. The same edition carried an apology from Wilkersons son, W. R. Wilkerson III and he wrote that his father had been motivated by revenge for his thwarted ambition to own a studio. Wilkersons wife, Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, took over as publisher and she sold the paper on April 11,1988, to Affiliated Publications, parent company of Billboard Publications, for $26.7 million. Robert J. Dowling became THR president in 1988 and editor-in-chief, Dowling brought in Alex Ben Block as editor in 1990, and editorial quality of both news and specials steadily improved. Block and Teri Ritzer dampened much of the coverage and cronyism that had infected the paper under Wilkerson. After Block left, former editor at Variety, Anita Busch, was brought in as editor between 1999 and 2001. Busch was credited with making the paper competitive with Variety, tony Uphoff assumed the publisher position in November 2005. Uphoff was replaced in October 2006 by John Kilcullen, the publisher of Billboard, Kilcullen was a defendant in Billboards infamous dildo lawsuit, in which he was accused of race discrimination and sexual harassment
The Hollywood Reporter
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Dwayne Johnson on the June 2014 cover
29.
Artificial intelligence (video games)
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In video games, artificial intelligence is used to generate intelligent behaviors primarily in non-player characters, often simulating human-like intelligence. The techniques used typically draw upon existing methods from the field of artificial intelligence, however, the term game AI is often used to refer to a broad set of algorithms that also include techniques from control theory, robotics, computer graphics and computer science in general. Video game AI has come a long way in the sense that it has revolutionized the way humans interact with all forms of technology and this, for example, is true in first-person shooter games, where NPCs otherwise perfect aiming would be beyond human skill. Game playing was an area of research in AI from its inception, one of the first examples of AI is the computerised game of Nim made in 1951 and published in 1952. In 1951, using the Ferranti Mark 1 machine of the University of Manchester, Christopher Strachey wrote a checkers program and these were among the first computer programs ever written. Arthur Samuels checkers program, developed in the middle 50s and early 60s, work on checkers and chess would culminate in the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBMs Deep Blue computer in 1997. The first video games developed in the 1960s and early 1970s, the first notable ones for the arcade appeared in 1974, the Taito game Speed Race and the Atari games Qwak and Pursuit. Two text-based computer games from 1972, Hunt the Wumpus and Star Trek, enemy movement was based on stored patterns. The incorporation of microprocessors would allow more computation and random elements overlaid into movement patterns, galaxian added more complex and varied enemy movements, including maneuvers by individual enemies who break out of formation. Pac-Man introduced AI patterns to maze games, with the added quirk of different personalities for each enemy, karate Champ later introduced AI patterns to fighting games, although the poor AI prompted the release of a second version. First Queen was a tactical action RPG which featured characters that can be controlled by the computers AI in following the leader. Games like Madden Football, Earl Weaver Baseball and Tony La Russa Baseball all based their AI on an attempt to duplicate on the computer the coaching or managerial style of the selected celebrity. Madden, Weaver and La Russa all did extensive work with game development teams to maximize the accuracy of the games. Later sports titles allowed users to tune variables in the AI to produce a player-defined managerial or coaching strategy, the emergence of new game genres in the 1990s prompted the use of formal AI tools like finite state machines. Real-time strategy games taxed the AI with many objects, incomplete information, pathfinding problems, real-time decisions, the first games of the genre had notorious problems. Herzog Zwei, for example, had almost broken pathfinding and very basic three-state state machines for unit control, later games in the genre exhibited more sophisticated AI. Later games have used bottom-up AI methods, such as the emergent behaviour, façade was released in 2005 and used interactive multiple way dialogs and AI as the main aspect of game. Games have provided an environment for developing artificial intelligence with potential applications beyond gameplay, examples include Watson, a Jeopardy. -playing computer, and the RoboCup tournament, where robots are trained to compete in soccer
Artificial intelligence (video games)
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Light cycle characters compete to be the last one riding, in
GLtron.
Artificial intelligence (video games)
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In strategy games like
Freeciv, the game AI must deal with large amounts of information
30.
Sony Computer Entertainment
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Sony Interactive Entertainment is a multinational video game company and is an owned subsidiary and part of the Consumer Products and Services Group of Sony. The company was founded and established on November 16,1993, as Sony Computer Entertainment, since the successful launch of the original PlayStation console in 1994, the company has since been developing the PlayStation lineup of home video game consoles and accessories. Expanding upon North America and other countries, the company soon became Sonys main resource for research and development in video games, in 1994, Sony Computer Entertainment America, began to produce the original PlayStation console in North America. The starting price for this console was originally listed at $299.99, in April 2016, SCE and Sony Network Entertainment was restructured and reorganized into Sony Interactive Entertainment, carrying over the operations and primary objectives from both companies. Sony Interactive Entertainment handles the research and development, production, alongside, it is also a developer and publisher of video game titles and is composed of several subsidiaries of Sonys largest markets, North America, Europe and Asia. As of September 30,2016, the company has sold more than 486 million PlayStation consoles worldwide. Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. was jointly established by Sony, the original PlayStation console was released on December 3,1994, in Japan. The companys North American operations, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, were established in May 1995 as a division of Sony Electronic Publishing. Located in Foster City, California, the North American office was headed by Steve Race. On August 7,1995, Race unexpectedly resigned and was named CEO of Spectrum HoloByte three days later and he was replaced by Sony Electronics veteran Martin Homlish. The PS console was released in the United States on September 9,1995, as part of a worldwide restructuring at the beginning of 1997, SCEA was re-established as a wholly owned subsidiary of SCEI. The launch of the second PS console, the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4,2000, on July 1,2002, chairman of SCEI, Shigeo Maruyama, was replaced by Tamotsu Iba as chairman. Jack Tretton and Phil Harrison were also promoted to vice presidents of SCE. The PlayStation Portable was SCEIs first foray into the handheld console market. Its development was first announced during SCEs E3 conference in 2003, the system was released in Japan on December 12,2004, in North America on March 24,2005, and in Europe and Australia on September 1,2005. On September 14,2005, SCEI formed Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, shuhei Yoshida was named as President of SCE WWS on May 16,2008, replacing Kazuo Hirai, who was serving interim after Harrison left the company in early 2008. On December 8,2005, video game developer Guerrilla Games, on January 24,2006, video game developer Zipper Interactive, developers of the Socom series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. Sony also stated that the service would always be connected, free, the launch date for the PS3 was announced by Hirai at the pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo conference held at Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, U. S. on May 8,2006
Sony Computer Entertainment
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SCE Global Headquarters in Tokyo
Sony Computer Entertainment
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The SCE logo since 1994
Sony Computer Entertainment
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Former SCEA headquarters in
Foster City, California.
Sony Computer Entertainment
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Primary businesses
