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Openfeint

OpenFeint is really on a roll. The developers keep on signing up, new cool games are being launched and the interest from bigger game publishers & developers is huge. Here’s a couple of links to recent coverage about OpenFeint:

AuroraFeint to roll out OpenFeint 2.0 a gaming platform for the iPhone
How OpenFeint plans to become to mobile social gaming what Facebook is to web apps
OpenFeint 2.0 social community platform released
OpenFeint 2.1 beta supporting iPhone 3.0 from today
Tuaw interviews openfeints Peter Relan, Net Jacobsson and Jason Citron
Net Jacobsson joins OpenFeint Advisory Board

Susan participated in an Avatar panel at SXSW in Austin and shared some of her notes with us on Avartars, Virtual worlds and Gaming. She also points to a very interesting academic study on Game Studies (download).

Main points:

1. Games need more laughter in the slaughter
2. Players want to help other players do well in the game even when the game is competitive
3. Games need non-white characters who are not gangsters or criminals.
4. Gamers are less social than you think they are, less social than even THEY think they are
5. How do players learn to play? If it looks like a sniper, it should act like a sniper
6. Gestural interfaces that make sense, make sense for specific reasons.
7. You can quantify which factors matter most in immersive game design.
8. There are multiple ways to approach realism
9. There is such a thing as ethical videogame design
10. Death matters..

BitTorrent, is opening up a media store tomorrow, Monday. The download site will distribute more than 5,000 titles from digital movies, TV shows, games and other media. After long having been the bad kid on the block, BitTorrent has finally managed to sooth Hollywood. 

When opening the store on Monday it will offer: Superman Returns, Mission: Impossible III and An Inconvenient Truth. Among the available TV shows are 24 and Chappelle’s Show.

The good thing about it is that people will finally be able to download movies without the fear of viruses and bad copies. The question is, will the crowd that has long relied upon BiTorrent for free goodies stay or turn elsewere?