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          <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">- <a href="../index.html">Contents</a><br>
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              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC">volume 
                1, issue 21</font></b></font></p>
              <p><font color="#0000FF"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000CC"> 
                </font></b></font></p>
              <p>  <p><font face="Courier New, Courier, mono"><b><font color="#339900" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Today 
                in loonygames:</font></b></font></p>

<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">New!!</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments <a href="../../../index.html">on the front page</a>!</font></p>
              
<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/feat/index.html" target="">Livin' 
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  theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's <b>The Sims</b>, 
  asking the inevitable quesiton, &quot;is <b>The Sims</b> the first step toward a virtual 
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<P><font color="#000000" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><a href="../../2.15/pixel/index.html" target="">Pixel 
  Obscura</a></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">: Josh 
  Vasquez on <b>Omikron: The Nomad Soul</b>.</font></p>
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0022A8"><b><a target="" href="../../columns.1"><font size="-1">From 
          the Mouth of Madness</font></a><font size="-1">:</font></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><br>
          GameSpy Has A Future?</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="+3" color="#0022A8"><font size="+1"> 
          (Special Q&amp;A with Mark Surfas)</font></font></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
        <p align="RIGHT"><font color="#804000"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">By 
          Jason &quot;<a target="" href="mailto:jason@loonygames.com">loonyboi</a>&quot; 
          Bergman</font></b></font></p>
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        <p align="LEFT"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1"><i>Since I needed 
          some current info on <b>GameSpy</b> to write this, I contacted Mark 
          Surfas, <b>GameSpy</b> biz dude. Here's a quick Q&amp;A about their 
          whole business model, in case you're into that sort of thing.</i></font></p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">What do you think of GameSpy's 
          popularity with Half-life? </font></b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> 
          I'm not really surprised - <b>GameSpy</b> was built on the multiplayer 
          success of <b>Quake</b> - so it's the same audience. <b>Half-Life</b> 

          deathmatch is just awesome. Let's pause for a moment here while I put my 
          shotgun in your mouth, blow you across the room and then spray graffiti 
          on the walls mocking you.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Has the in-game browser 
          kept people from using it, or is it a non-issue?</b> <b>GameSpy</b> 
          offers a tremendous number of powerful and convenient features that 
          will be hard to duplicate in an ingame browser. It's definitely not 
          impossible, but given tight game budgets and the need for a return on 
          investment for the time spent, I don't think you'll see developers create 
          anything in the next year or two but an easy to use rudimentary system.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I use the ingame browser 
          for LAN games, but when I'm thinking about playing on the net lately 
          I usually check out what's going on in <b>QuakeWorld</b>, <b>Shogo</b>, 
          <b>Half-Life</b>. My world does not revolve around one game - so I don't 
          want my server browser to either. But then, I'm an addict. :)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">As I answer this we're having 
          a LAN party here at <b>GameSpy</b>/<b>PQ</b> with about 30 people playing 
          <b>Half-Life</b> - it's definitely our favorite deathmatch right now. 
          I think that whatever developers do to introduce more people to online 
          gaming is good - and the recent trend of in-game server browsing is 
          a validation of what we're all about - free gameplay running whatever 
          mods we want on servers scattered all over the net. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Are GameSpy Lites paid 
          for, or is it a free service you offer to developers?</b> <b>GameSpy 
          Lites</b> are built under contract for the developers - in conjunction 
          with a whole set of back-end services that we've developed. These services 
          include running master servers, registration systems, tracking systems, 
          auto-patching, etc. Our aim is to provide everything a developer needs 
          to have in place to their game be accessed on the net quickly and easily. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In January two games will 
          ship with GameSpy lite built into game as the multiplayer interface 
          - Turok2 and Southpark. The guys at Iguana did a terrific job with the 
          Turok2 integration - and gamespy lite is used as both the internet and 
          lan browser. It's sweet.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">In 1998 we proved ourselves 
          as a group that both gamers and devlopers/publishers can trust and work 
          with. In 1999 we're going to be evolving the current architecture at 
          a fairly fast clip. This year is going to WILD! for online gameplay. 
          </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Developers interested in 
          gaining gamespy support for their upcoming games and finding out more 
          about our back-end technology that they can tap into should email me, 
          <a href="mailto:mark@gamespy.com">mark@gamespy.com</a>.</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>How have GS registrations 
          been? Have they been coming in in droves since Baldur's Gate, Heretic 
          II and Unreal all shipped with it?</b> <b>GameSpy</b> registrations 
          definitely reflect the level of online enthusiasm - and we're seeing 
          alot of enthusiasm right now with the recent streak of high quality 
          games hitting the net. We have a nice little business here, and why 
          not? Gamers came up with the product for their own use - and now we're 
          the major enabler of distributed client server gaming. I can't predict 
          where this is all headed - but we're definitely having FUN. We're definitely 
          not going to get rich anytime soon. ;)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Besides Tribes, what other 
          games are in the basket for GameSpy support? Any plans to expand into 
          other (untouched) genres like RTS games?</b> We just added <b>Turok 
          2</b>, <b>SouthPark</b>, <b>Baldur's Gate</b>, <b>Descent 3</b> and 
          <b>Dark Vengeance</b> to <b>GameSpy 3d</b> this past week. Coming up... 
          I think you'll see <b>Redline</b> and with some luck, <b>Tribes</b>. 
          (Sierra keeps pumping out the multiplayer hits! Go Sierra! ) There are 
          a couple of surprises coming soon - I don't want to spoil the fun though. 
          :)</font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">The <b>GameSpy </b>architecture 
          has now crossed the client server boundaries and we support peer to 
          peer connections. We just released a new version of the <b>GameSpy </b><a href="http://www.gamespy.com/developer/">Developer 
          Spec</a> and you should see a wide variety of game types receive GameSpy 
          support in 99. </font></p>
        <p><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Quick Sales Pitch: The<b> 
          GameSpy</b> Dev Spec and Tookit enable a developer to receive full <b>GameSpy</b> 
          Support with just a few hours progamming and a few more hours testing 
          - literally less than a day. Not a bad investment to put your game in 
          front of over 3,000,000 online gamers. ROCK!</font></p>
        <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Thanks Mark! You can always 
          check out GameSpy at <a href="http://www.gamespy.com">GameSpy.com</a>!</font></b></p>
        <p align="RIGHT">&nbsp;</p>
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      <p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"> </font></i><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2"><b>Credits:</b> 
        From the Mouth of Madness logo illustrated by and is &copy; 1998 Dan Zalkus. 
        From the Mouth of Madness is &copy; 1998 Jason Bergman. All other content 
        is &copy; 1998 <a target="_self" href="http://www.loonyboi.com">loonyboi 
        productions</a>. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, you 
        naughty boy, you.</font></i></p>
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