Mort's Mortuary

Several months ago I thought that my RPG collector's shelf is completed and that I have managed to obtain items I always wanted to have. Hopefully there are publishers that make me wait impatiently for new RPGs. Some of these titles may not even seem playable but they convinced me enough to ignite a desire of buying them. Here are some titles that are mostly antcipated this year (this list may of course change whenever something new is announced).

1. Anima - Beyond Fantasy - This may look like any other fantasy RPG but the difference is that this work is being developed by European non-English developers and illustrated by Japanese designers. I've been waiting for this East+West mixture for over a year and it's this 12 months is an actual delay. Hopefully FFG will manage to complete the title and send it to print before the deadline.
   
   Release date: Summer 2008
   
   
2. CthulhuTech - A variation on Mythos in an anime style mecha confrontation against the Old Ones and their spawn. The most recent product of Mongoose Publishing from the Flaming Cobra series takes us into the late 21st century where humanity is in great peril as the stars were right and the long forseen apocalypse has begun. Humanity, however, is not just standing and watching. They mount giant robots to battle the armies of MiGo and baffle the schemes of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. I has been released already couple of months ago but it disappeared quicker than I thought. Now, I need to wait for a reprint.
   
   Reprint date: July 2008
   
   
3. Song of Fire and Ice - This would be the second attempt to encompass the world created by GRRM into a roleplaying game. The first attemt resulted in a heavy tome full of information about the world, put into a nice set of d20 rules and beautifully printed. Unfortunatelly Guardiand of Order Closed and the license went to Green Ronin creators of hit setting Freeport and the true fatherc behind Warhammer FRP 2ed. I just can't wait to see the new creation of those who brought WFRP back to life. Another good thing is that the mechanics will be completely new and should allow playing a character ranging from a peasant to the king. We shall see...
   
   Release date: October 2008

Last Friday several people more or less related to one of the most hated companies ever came to Dublin. MIX Essentials was a one-day event for developers and designers organized by Microsoft in the Fair City.

Notified about this event by one of my workmates I decided to participate in it since I am neither a designer nor a developer. Everything was split into two tracks, one of which I neglected completely - the developers' part. I'm not too much into the latest Microsoft technologies like Silverlight 2, benefits of Windows Live! platform (blah) or ASP.NET.

Designers track had little to do with design per se and focused rather on stuff that goes together with design: emotions and experiences. I must admit that I was impressed by more than a half of presentations. The opening keynote by Lou Carbone, founder of Experience Engineering, would be a good lesson for many 'marketing specialists' including those in my workplace. BTW It's been a long time since I saw a marketing campaign that left a bad impression. How can customers' respect and desire a product after really poor advertising and doing nothing to make them feel special?

During Mr. Carbone's presentation only a handful of companies that care about a customer's/user's experience came into my mind. Naturally, the first was Opera :] Why? Because it makes me feel good about myself when using its products, which is the gist of what managing customers' experience is all about.

Second came the main part which was basicly extension of the opening presentation. Speakers were emphasizing the importance of emotion and total user experience in the market of tomorrow. One of them was a case study by James Deely from Conchango, one of the leading design companies in Europe. He led the audience through the evolution of ideas that, through minor things, improved the way people feel about themselves when using certain product. In this case: Virgin Atlantic. Another was revolving around one of the Microsoft's products in-the-making i.e. Surface. Here August de los Reyes, Experience Architect with Surface Project, outlined how the functionality and capability will be less and less important in designing new products and the focus will shift to arouse emotional engagement from the customers' side. It's a bit difficult for me to summarize this presentation as it was quite scholarly, which I liked, so to have it remembered I needed to do some notes which I didn't do.

There was also a draw for an Xbox 360 which I didn't win Too bad.