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Jordan Weisman
Jordan Weisman is an American game designer, author, and serial entrepreneur who has founded five game design companies, each in a different game genre and segment of the industry. Biography Weisman graduated from Francis W. Parker High School, in Chicago, Illinois. He went to the Merchant Marine Academy and briefly attended University of Illinois at Chicago, before leaving school to pursue his business interests. In 1980, Weisman founded role playing game publisher FASA Corporation (short for the Freedonia Aeronautics & Space Administration, named after the fictional country in the Marx Brothers film ''Duck Soup'') with partner L. Ross Babcock. Weisman and Babcock printed up a few hundred copies of Weisman's early adventures for the pen and paper role-playing game, ''Traveller'', and sold them to a local Chicago store before sending them to nationwide distributors. Although working out of Weisman's basement, he and Babcock were looking for outside talent and brought William ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USC Interactive Media Division
The University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts's Interactive Media & Games Division first accepted M.F.A. students in 2002. The division currently offers both undergraduate (B.A.) and graduate (M.F.A.) programs in interactive media and game design. The programs include courses in game design, development, audio, animation, and user research as well as experimental work in gestural and immersive interfaces, transmedia design, and interactive cinema. In 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, USC was named as the number-one design program for games in North America by the Princeton Review. Major funders of the USC IMGD include Microsoft and Electronic Arts, both of which companies have endowed faculty positions in the program. Game industry executive Bing Gordon was the first holder of the Electronic Arts Endowed Chair in Interactive Entertainment, which is currently held by game designer Tracy Fullerton. The Microsoft Endowed Professorship is held by user ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William H
William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Liam, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the German given name ''Wilhelm''. Both ultimately descend from Proto-Germanic ''*Wiljahelmaz'', with a direct cognate also in the Old Norse name ''Vilhjalmr'' and a West Germanic borrowing into Medieval Latin ''Willelmus''. The Proto-Germa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Beast (game)
''The Beast'' is an alternate reality game developed by Microsoft to promote the 2001 film '' A.I. Artificial Intelligence''. Entry points to the game embedded into the film's promotion centered on the fictional Jeanine Salla and the death of her friend Evan Chan. In 2142, Jeanine learns that Evan was murdered and her investigation uncovers a network of murders of humans and artificial intelligences. The game launched on March 8, 2001 and continued running past its initially scheduled end date on June 29, the film's release date. Players were led through a network of websites created by Warner Bros. registered to fake names, and further clues were given in subsequent promotional materials and events for the film. The game drew a large, tight-knit player base who created online groups dedicated to the game, most prominently the Yahoo! Group Cloudmakers. ''The Beast'' was described as "unprecedented even by Hollywood standards" and is considered among the most influential early alte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alternative Reality Game
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players' responses. It is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by an AI as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and collaborate as a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones and mail, but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium. ARGs tend to be free to play, with costs absorbed either through supporting products (e.g., collectible puzzle cards fund Perplex City) or through promotional rela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washington, United States. Its best-known software products are the Microsoft Windows, Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Office Productivity software#Office suite, suite, and the Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge, Edge web browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xbox video game consoles and the Microsoft Surface lineup of touchscreen personal computers. Microsoft ranked No. 21 in the 2020 Fortune 500 rankings of the largest United States corporations by total revenue; it was the world's List of the largest software companies, largest software maker by revenue as of 2019. It is one of the Big Tech, Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
IBM PC Clone
IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. The term "IBM PC compatible" is now a historical description only, since IBM no longer sells personal computers after it sold its personal computer division in 2005 to Chinese technology company Lenovo. The designation "PC", as used in much of personal computer history, has not meant "personal computer" generally, but rather an x86 computer capable of running the same software that a contemporary IBM PC could. The term was initially in contrast to the variety of home computer systems available in the early 1980s, such as the Apple II, TRS-80, and Commodore 64. Later, the term was primarily used in contrast to Apple's Macintosh computers. These "clones" duplicated almost all the significant features of the original IBM PC architectures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denny Thorley
Denny Thorley is an American video game designer. Career In 1995, Denny Thorley and Jordan Weisman formed a new company, FASA Interactive and then FASA Corporation Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city date ... (the RPG company) provided FASA Interactive with a license for its properties in return for stock. Thorley was also president of Day 1 Studios. '' MechAssault'' was initiated when Thorley approached Jon Kimmich of Microsoft about developing an original '' BattleTech'' game built from the ground up to support console play. References Living people Video game designers Year of birth missing (living people) {{videogame-bio-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FASA Interactive
Fasa ( fa, فسا, Fasā, also Romanized as Fassa) is a city and capital of Fasa County, Fars Province, Iran. At the 2016 census, its population was 110,825, in 33,379 families. Fasa is the fourth most populous city of the province. The city dates back to the Achaemenid period. Fasa's economy is based on agriculture and Pastoralism. Jahrom, Darab, Sarvestan, Kherameh and Estahban are neighbours of Fasa. This city is located on the road from Shiraz to Kerman, This has made Fasa a strategic and important city. Name The name Fasa is derived from the older form Pasā. Various etymologies for this name have been proposed. Local tradition holds that Fasa is named after a legendary prince named Pasa, son of Fars and grandson of Tahmuras. In Ibn al-Balkhi's retelling the legend, Fars granted the town of Fasa to Pasa; in Hamdallah Mustawfi's version, Pasa founds the city himself (in this version, he is directly the son of Tahmuras). Harold Bailey proposed on linguistic ground ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Lewis (game Designer)
Sam Lewis is an American designer of board games and former line developer of the '' Renegade Legion'' line in FASA Corporation. He was also president of FASA for a time. Background He holds an MBA in economics from Northwestern University, which he obtained in 1983. In 1983, he was credited as the designers of Mayfair Games' ''Dragonriders of Pern'' licensed game after a novel by Anne McCaffrey. After Jordan Weisman founded the company which would become Virtual World Entertainment, Sam Lewis became president of FASA. By 1994, '' Renegade Legion'' had been dropped from production, and when Paul Lidberg - president of Crunchy Frog Enterprises - sought a full ''Battletech'' license from FASA, Lewis convinced Lidberg to license ''Renegade Legion'' instead. For FASA, he created the individual combat game ''Battletroops'' in their ''Battletech'' game universe, and is credited for the adaption thereof under the name ''DMZ'' in the ''Shadowrun'' universe. Apart from that, he was res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Incredible Technologies
Incredible Technologies (IT) (formerly Free Radical Software (FRS)) is an American designer and manufacturer of coin-operated video games and Class III casino games, based in Vernon Hills, Illinois. The company's most widely used product is the ''Golden Tee Golf'' series. The company employs around 200 people at its offices in suburban Chicago. History The firm was founded as Free Radical Software in July 1985 by Richard Ditton, a NASA software engineer, and Elaine Hodgson, a biochemist. The company was a software design gaming firm working for Semaphore Systems, developing the title '' Championship Wrestling'' for Epyx, and porting '' Winter Games'' to Amiga and Atari ST, before being renamed as Incredible Technologies. The company started in the basement of the owners' home and developed a variety of work-for-hire entertainment projects, including pinball hardware and game programming for Data East. In its early years, IT struggled to maintain profitability, with no hit pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BattleTech Centers
BattleTech Centers are commercial virtual entertainment venues that feature multiplayer virtual combat in the fictional ''BattleTech'' universe. The games are played in fully enclosed cockpits with multiple screens, joysticks, and rudder pedals. The centers were initially created and operated by Tim Disney's Virtual World Entertainment, Inc. Today, the gaming cockpits can now be found in various sites around the United States. History The first BattleTech Center opened in Chicago in 1990, with others in Yokohama following in August 1992 and Tokyo in 1993. Eventually, 26 such facilities were built and included other game types and more elaborate operations. These new locations were called 'Virtual World'. Each Virtual World site featured at least 16 networked "pods" designed in part by Frog Design. In 1991, ''Computer and Video Games'' called Battletech "definitely the most exciting interactive videogame system yet devised." It was also featured in Discovery Channel's ''Beyond 2000 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadowrun
''Shadowrun'' is a science fantasy tabletop role-playing game set in an alternate future in which cybernetics, magic and fantasy creatures co-exist. It combines genres of cyberpunk, urban fantasy and crime, with occasional elements of conspiracy, horror and detective fiction. From its inception in 1989, ''Shadowrun'' has remained among the most popular role-playing games. It has spawned a vast franchise that includes a series of novels, a collectible card game, two miniature-based tabletop wargames, and multiple video games. The title is taken from the game's main premise – a near-future world damaged by a massive magical event, where industrial espionage and corporate warfare runs rampant. A ''shadowrun'' – a successful data theft or physical break-in at a rival corporation or organization – is one of the main tools employed by both corporate rivals and underworld figures. Deckers (futuristic hackers) who can tap into an immersive, three-dimensional cyberspace are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
