Greetings, everyone. Now that we've officially entered the summer doldrums, I'm hoping that we can give the ol' Armchair a kick and get more people involved in our little community here. I doubt you'll find a group anywhere that has more interest and knowledge of classic computers and videogames, so there's plenty for us to talk about! What I'm thinking, though, is that it may be time to give folks a chance to introduce themselves, talk about their interests, and just try to get to know each other a little better. Let's swap stories!

Characters and Visuals from Cecropia's "The Act"While industry analysts such as myself, and others like legendary developers Chris Crawford and Richard Garriott (AKA "Lord British") have been proponents of exploring sophisticated themes in gaming, be they mature, emotional or something else entirely, few games have actually bothered to make a legitimate attempt. Those that have, such as "Facade" have been more miss than hit in execution. A company called Cecropia has finally come out of stealth/start-up mode and been getting a lot of press lately about their first "experimental" game, "The Act", identified as an interactive comedic film experience. What seems to make this a bit different from the usual indie developer spin on things is that the company was started in conjunction with a bunch of former Disney animators, giving the experience legitimate visual impact, while the gameplay is designed around a simple knob to manipulate the emotions, personality and actions of the player's avatar.

PMS-clan, professional women gamersYahoo news, reports that more and more women are getting interested in the world of videogames that still is largely dominated by men. But this is about to change as a group of women called Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers (PMS) - a clan of about 500 female gamers aged between 9 and 58 – strives to shift the balance. According to it’s clan-members, PMS is a very supportive environment for women-gamers and they often lack understanding in their own social environment. The clan-members can take part in professional game-contests on a regular basis and have to adhere to a 30-page conduct-code. An important part of the code is the rule that fellow-gamers nor opponents may be put down or belittled in any way – unless this is part of the game play of course.