PixlBit

We wouldn’t be here without all of you.

We throw around the word “community” in the video games arena without a second thought. Even small enthusiast sites have community managers and a myriad of other ways to strengthen and connect people who are passionate about games. If it weren’t for several key creatives that helped form the gaming landscape through the decades, though, we might not have the communities we all take for granted. Dungeons & Dreamers’ updated second edition guides us on a journey that shows how communities became so important to gaming. It’s an intriguing thesis that is hammered home with a continuous chain of examples that make it undeniable how integral community has always been to video games.

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John Carmack pontificates on the future of virtual reality, the viability of Ouya, a completed id iOS game, and tons of other topics.

John Carmack gave his QuakeCon keynote this year which focused on his efforts and thoughts about virtual reality.  Following the release of Rage, Carmack allowed himself to let loose, buy some VR headsets and get his engineering mind locked in on a new technology.  Carmack spoke for over three hours, wandering away and then back time after time to the virtual reality theme.  His sleuthing and coding has led to the creation of a playable VR demo of Doom 3 (which he tried to temper expectations for).  Virtual reality has been portrayed by the media to be a realistic life simulator, but Carmack assures us that there is still plenty of work to be done.  These warnings led into musings on the state of display technology, cloud gaming, Ouya, and many other topics during a three hour one-man show that most audience members couldn’t endure ‘til the end.

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