Behind the Lines
September 2006
In This Issue
A Letter from the Editor
School is here. For those of our readers who have kids of their
own (older than 4 at least) this is not going to be anything new.
For those who want kids someday or have recently had kids (like our Vice
President of Operations, Erik Rutins!) this is important: So listen
up! When I was a kid I longed for the day when I was an adult and
didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to school. When I
was an adult, before kids, I lived that dream. Last week my daughter
had her first day of school (pre-school). I came to a startling
revelation. By having kids I condemned myself to another 14 years of
having to wake up at the crack of dawn. Worse, for the early years I
will be spending plenty of cold and rainy mornings waiting at a bus stop
before the sun has even risen.
And so a warning to you all: Think ahead when planning for
children. How close is your school? How long is that wait at the
bus stop? What TIME does school start? 14 years of pain... worth
it? Probably, but this sure sucks!
Feature: A Bouncing Baby Boy
If you hadn't seen the big news on the front page: Our VP of
Operations Erik Rutins has set himself up to learn the exact same lesson I
just did four years from now. However, I note that it wasn't Erik
who did the work, so a big congrats to his wife Patty for not slaying Erik
for, as my wife said, "Doing this to me." The birth was not without
its little troubles, but the baby Alexander, Patty, and Erik are all doing
fine. Here's a picture!
Mark my words Mr. Rutins, in four years you'll be waking up for school
again... until then you'll be waking up to change diapers and other fun
tasks! I predict that Alex, our web-overlord, and his new wife (almost
been a year now) will be the next to bring home a bundle of "waking up
early."
Article: Anti-Game Bills
Normally I would not put any modern politics into my newsletter.
However, this warrants an exception. There is currently a bill
working its way through US congress that is another prime example of
legislation passing laws on industries they do not understand... and
messing it all up.
The current bill requires all game content be rated by the ESRB.
Sounds good if you say it quickly and don't give it much thought.
However, it really is a very stupid bill indeed. Here is a quote
from the bill:
"Conduct Prohibited- It shall be
unlawful for any person to ship or otherwise distribute in interstate
commerce, or to sell or rent, a video game that does not contain a rating
label, in a clear and conspicuous location on the outside packaging of the
video game, containing an age-based content rating determined by the
Entertainment Software Ratings Board"
So what does this mean? It means every videogame MUST be rated by
the ESRB. It does not stipulate that it must be a retail game.
Later it goes on to say that failure to comply is a $5000 dollar fine per
instance. While most Matrix titles do NOT have an ESRB
rating, that is not really as big a concern as you may think. See,
Matrix is one of the few companies that would have the capital to comply
with such a ridiculous regulation. We certainly aren't supporting
it, but we could deal with it if push came to shove.
Instead, it's the independent developers who suffer the most. An
independent developer doesn't have the cash to pay 1,000 dollars to get an
ESRB rating on their first game. Some wouldn't even have the cash to
get ESRB ratings on the OLD games. If this bill passes the ESRB is
going to have to expand to meet the demand. It doesn't take an
economics PhD to know that increase in demand yields an increase in price.
So we can fairly safely assume that the 1000 dollar cost is just going to
increase.
Further, this bill would cover free flash games, online browser based
games, and even MODS of games for some instances. Of course, there
is no way to enforce this bill online, but assuming people complied with
the law it would literally cripple the US software industry. As soon
as it passes all major online companies are going to put it into court and
it will cost tax payers an untold fortune to work out.
So I implore the politically active readers to write your congressman and
senator and let them know that a 'yes' vote for this bill will be a 'no'
vote for their re-election (even if that is untrue, it doesn't hurt to let
them know how you feel!). Lets keep kids from playing graphically
violent games without destroying the livelihood of hundreds of online game
developers.
For more information on this visit my good friend and independent game
developer, Jay Barnson, at his blog
http://www.rampantgames.com/blog/2006/09/congressman-matheson-defends-anti.html#links
- after all, he's the reason I ended up working with Matrix Games!
Feature: Battle of Britain 2
Once again, a "You heard it in the newsletter first" moment. I
get to officially announce that Matrix Games will be bringing Battle of
Britain 2 to digital download. BOB2 is "The Only Grand Strategy World War 2 Air Combat Game"
- It is a blend of tactical strategy game and combat flight sim, where you
are not only flying the planes and bombing/shooting enemies, but also
managing a turn based campaign in the air assault on England.
Don't take my word for how cool it is. Along with Shockwave
Productions we're putting together a multi-video series that will be like
our own mini series chronicling an actual game that the creator of Battle
of Britain, Scott Gentile, is playing. The first video episode gives us the general overview
early in the war, as a young and ambitious German officer plans his key
assault to cripple spitfire production near the coast. His all
business demeanor shows us that he is serious about this undertaking, but
is this just a ruse of false bravado to cover his inexperience?
Our story begins at Episode 5, a few missions into the war.
Episodes 1-4 were done in text on the forum
http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5859
Download Episode 5 of "Commanding the Luftwaffe!" and start the
adventure!
ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/BattleOfBritain2/Luftwaffe5.zip
Here's two screenshot to whet your appetite, one tactical and one 3D
action! - BUT I IMPLORE YOU TO WATCH THE MOVIE!
Whispers...
What on Earth are all these people talking about?
Paul Vebber is running the Matrix Fantasy Football game, sign up
here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1208995
He just concluded the baseball season, or is about to at any rate.
Catch the final games here:
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=1254385
Firing Squad did an interview with John, developer of
Starshatter: The Gathering Storm
http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=12330
In case you missed it, a video of Starshatter: The Gathering Storm
is now available:
ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/StarshatterTheGatheringStorm/Starshatter-Promo-Video-3med.wmv
Updates
This section provides links to the updates released between the
last newsletter and now. No more having to search for download
links; we've got 'em right here!
War In The Pacific Scenario Editor v.6
ftp://ftp.matrixgames.com/pub/WarInThePacific/WarInThePacific-Editor-v6.zip
Panzer Command: Operation Winter Storm v1.12
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/downloads.asp?gid=327
Crown Of Glory v1.2.25
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/downloads.asp?gid=306
The Operational Art of War v3.0.0.17
http://www.matrixgames.com/games/downloads.asp?gid=317
Keep an eye on the news page and forums at
www.matrixgames.com for
information on these two upcoming patches!
A Parting Shot
Mix one partially insane and dying Spanish monarch, one expansionistic
and religious French monarch, one horribly shaky alliance between all
other powers in Europe (just about), and what do you get? You get
the war the ended Sept 10th, 1697. This war is known by many names
and mostly ignored in US text books. Why? Well, it really
didn't accomplish much. I think hear it most often called War of the
English Succession. As far as I can tell it is officially called the
Nine Years War, though also referred to as War of the League of Augsburg,
War of the Grand Alliance, and King William's War.
The long and the short of this conflict was an attempt to grab
Alsace-Lorraine for France, but France jumped the gun and once again
underestimated how much the rest of Europe didn't want to be pushed around
by France. So after getting beat on and trying to organize, the
European powers eventually formed an alliance between the United Provinces
of the Netherlands, Austria-Hungary (Holy Roman Empire), Brandenburg,
Saxony, Bavaria and Spain. Interestingly England initially joined on
the side of France, but when William of Orange's invasion of England
removed King James II from power it also shifted the side of England from
siding with France to siding with the new alliance. So, with just
about everyone in Europe against him, France was drawn into a stalemate
that ended in the Treaty of Rijswijk on September 10th, 1697.
And so we sign off this month with a day in history most people have
either forgotten or never heard of. Why? Because it marked the
end of a war that changed nothing, though England does remember it for the
removal of King James II.
Joe Lieberman
Newsletter Editor
|
