Tag Archives: max payne

environmental malfunction

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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After our conversation in the elevator unfortunately is interrupted by ↑Francis Pritchard entering, ↑Megan Reed has to go and meet ↑Athene Margoulis, ↑David Sarif‘s executive assistant. The latter is my boss, the founder and CEO of ↑Sarif Industries, whom I now have to meet up in his office. And quite an office it is [see above], although not as impressive as the one of ↑Dr. Eldon Tyrell—but then again Sarif Industries is characterized as ‘a moderately-sized biotechnology company.’ For that the building housing his company is quite impressive.     While talking with the old man [strange to say that, … Continue reading →

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moc scales

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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Back in the 19th century, when you entered a museum where paintings of old masters were on exhibition, chances were that you encountered flocks of art students meticulously copying those pictures. During the heyday of academic painting this was a didactic standard procedure. Nowadays this practice more often than not is spat upon by the protagonists of the art scene.     Back in the heyday of Max-Payne modding countless recreations of characters, weapons, and architecture from the Matrix-franchise were accomplished by members of the community. Yours truly was ↑no exception.     Recreation of cherished artefacts from intellectual property … Continue reading →

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postapocalyptic interviews

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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At level-design.org there is an interesting ↑interview with Hélder Pinto aka [HP], my old friend from the Max-Payne modding-scene who became a level artist at Crytek. The above is an example of his art, the devastated Madison Square as it appears in Crysis 2. If it wouldn’t be such an old cliché, I’d say you truly are a master of desaster, my man. Speaking of which, eurogamer.org carries a recent ↑interview with John Carmack, the master of Doom. Engine John not only talks about id’s upcoming title Rage, but also on technology at large, e.g. about the end of Moore’s … Continue reading →

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free game

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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Like movies or novels, computer games are media. In accordance to the intentions of its authors, designers, and developers, a computer game mediates experiences to the players. The malleability and potential of the medium allows the mediation of a vast range of experiences. In the case of Max Payne [Remedy 2001] it is the experience of living through a crime story, rather than the experience of some kind of contest. Besides being a medium, a computer game first of all is a piece of software, a complex piece of program code […] While I was writing these sentences—their German equivalents, … Continue reading →

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guy headroom

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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The screenshot above I grabbed from ‘↑A Message from Anonymous—12/16/2010‘ on YouTube. No, I won’t really comment on ↑Anonymous for now—my esteemed colleague ↑Biella Coleman already covers it nicely from an anthropological vantage point: ‘↑Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action.’ What I am driving at are the remix-æsthetics of the video, and the sources it draws on, which stem from 1980s British cyberpunk.     The ↑Guy Fawkes mask is part of Anonymous’ corporate identity from the beginning on. Of course they had the idea from a motion picture produced by the ↑Wachowski brothers of ↑Matrix-fame: ‘V for Vendetta’ … Continue reading →

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interview with a doomed marine

Posted on by October 5, 2012
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Again those little mosaic-tiles keep falling in place—and the timing is perfect. Just some days ago ↑John Postill confirmed via email that a paper I proposed for the ↑11th biennial conference of the ↑European Association of Social Anthropologists (EASA) has been accepted for the media anthropology network’s workshop ↑The Rewards of Media. Just one day before gamescares published an ↑interview with Peter Papadopoulos, Remedy’s community manager. Pete is an old friend of mine from the glorious days of Max-Payne modding. Within the online-scene he is better known as ADM, short for “a doomed marine,” of course an allusion to the … Continue reading →

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vulcano by hP

Posted on by October 4, 2012
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  Just a minute ago I received the latest e-mail newsletter from the ↑CGSociety. The top news in it is, that the CGSociety adopted ‘↑Game-Artist.net, the game artist’s web portal. Now there will be even more game-art eye-candy for the industry, under the CGSociety mantle. Drop by and check out Game-Artist today. For those already there, welcome!’ Immediately I went to the forums, headed down to the work-in-progress (WIP) section—within all forums of that kind the most interesting department to me—and clicked on the top thread, ↑Crysis Map ~ Operation Codename: Vulcano. Droolingly staring on the gorgeous screenshots I thought, … Continue reading →

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enemy dispenser

Posted on by October 4, 2012
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manuscript-day eleven of 100  Overlay text points me to a decidedly surreal element, a large switch, its socket pasted to a brick wall. An enamel sign above it reads ‘enemy dispenser.’ Gathering all my guts I am stepping up to the oversized button and ‘engage.’     Sudden excited shouting in the street. Outside my field of vision (FOV) a yet unknown number of bad guys has spawned. While I am hastily turning around a gun cracks. Blood sprays, the stereo headphones relay a pressed ‘Ugh!’ to my brain. Payne’s way of quitting him being hit. Panic stricken, having no … Continue reading →

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shooter saves life

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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  The computer game “↑Max Payne“ (MP, 2001) was ↑banned in Germany, due to “socioethical disorienting effects,” it supposedly causes. In July of 2002 “↑America’s Army“ (AA) was released—since then I am wondering why nobody over here has the idea to ban that game. AA, which is distributed for free over the Internet and on free DVDs, is  a tactical multiplayer first-person shooter owned by the United States Government and released as a global public relations initiative to help with U.S. Army recruitment. […]  Professor Michael Zyda, the director and founder of the MOVES Institute, acknowledged “↑Counter-Strike“ (CS) as the … Continue reading →

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welcome back to bright falls

Posted on by October 14, 2012
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cyberian nomadism confirmed    Once a real member of a real online community, always a member. ADM, whom I know since ye olde days of Max-Payne glory, yesterday evening sent me an e-mail, notifying me of the resurrected ↑BrightFalls.net—plus dipping my nose into the fact, that the Alan-Wake related links in the sidebar of my blog are outdated.  The relaunch of ADM’s site is a perfect up-to-date example of what, among other things, I am always bragging about in the academical realm:  “My” community is the central slice of the online-fanhood gathered around the games “Max Payne” (Remedy Entertainment 2001), … Continue reading →

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