Tag Archives: conquer
5 Invasive Species That Might Conquer the World
We humans think we’re so smart. But boy, do we do some not-so-smart things. Case in point: kudzu. The Japanese introduced it to the United States at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Americans thought the leafy, sweet-smelling plant was so lovely, they began using it for ornamentation. Then as forage for livestock. The government even got into the act, instructing the Civilian Conservation Corps to plant kudzu for erosion control. Yet no one spent a millisecond pondering how this non-native plant might react in its new environment. Big mistake.
Kudzu loved the climate in the Southern U.S., and took off like wildfire there, growing up to 60 feet (18.3 meters) per year. It began climbing up buildings and telephone poles, smothering cars and homes and becoming a general nuisance. And it’s still around today.
Unfortunately, that’s hardly an isolated incident. For years, people have brought non-native species into their countries because they’re pretty, or because they may be able to solve a problem. For instance, some might have imported amphibians or birds to eat insects that were destroying local crops. Except things didn’t exactly work out as planned. Lacking natural predators, the non-native species often thrived in their new surroundings to the point where they became problems — sometimes, rather big ones.
Today, such invasive species are found around the globe, and their presence outside of their native areas is damaging the world’s ecosystems and threatening biodiversity, costing people billions of dollars in reparations, eradication efforts and preventive measures [source: EarthTrends]. Although many governments have wised up and enacted tight controls on travelers, imported goods, plant nurseries and more, plenty of non-native species continue to be tracked around the globe unintentionally, by hiding in people’s shoes and luggage or hitchhiking on boat hulls, for example. Some — like the five on this list — seem almost unstoppable.
DeNA, Japan’s Social Gaming Giant, Tries to Conquer the World
Tokyo-based DeNA is without a doubt the largest player in Japan’s social-gaming scene. Its Mobage service, a gaming platform for Japanese cell phones, has racked up 25 million user registrations since its debut in 2006, and the company grosses over $ 1 billion in sales every year. The amazing thing: Nearly all of their revenue comes exclusively from the Japanese market. Although they’ve had a presence overseas (they purchased mobile game dev ngmoco last year for $ 400 million), the company has yet to seriously challenge the international game market on its terms. Until now.
“We’ve been thinking about going international for the past three or four years, but the features gap between Japanese and overseas phones was so great that it was hard to take that step forward,” said Isao Moriyasu, DeNA’s COO and director of social media. “The smartphone marketplace has finally expanded now to the point where we can get serious about this.”
In the interview, published in this week’s issue of Japan’s Famitsu magazine, Moriyasu touted his company’s ngCore engine, as well as its patience in developing individual markets. “We want to provide a worldwide standardized development environment for developers to produce content [for our service] on,” he said. “If developers use the ngCore game development engine, they can produce a game that runs on both iPhone and Android devices with a single set of source code. I think the individual aspects of our service will be deployed in different ways between Japan and international. Services and social games are inherently regional in nature, so our intention is to go with the services that work in Japan or Europe or wherever with each individual area.”
New Command & Conquer Game, Studio Inadvertently Revealed
The recent, sudden launch of a new EA website dedicated to Command & Conquer came as a real surprise thanks to the revelation of some information that presumably wasn’t yet meant for the public. The website announced that a new, triple-A C&C game for PCs is in the works at a new EA studio called Victory Games.
The site has since been pulled offline, with the standard site looking just as it did prior to what appears to be an accidental early launch. Cached versions of it are still available on Google and reveal an interview with Victory Games general manager Jon Van Caneghem. In addition to the new game, which will be formally announced later this year, he explained that Victory’s “general focus is on the future of Command & Conquer. That means updating a lot of the core technology to create a stable base for future development, and leveraging that work on this first game.”
The About page offers up the following tease for the new game: “With over 30 million sold, Command & Conquer now looks to the future, with plans to combine classic RTS gameplay with bold new technology, innovative new concepts and, as always, tanks by the dozen.” As of this past October, Visceral Games was said to be working on a new C&C game that was still “pretty far out.”
Next Command & Conquer Coming from Visceral Games
Word has gotten out that EA’s next Command & Conquer game will be released under the Visceral Games label.
During a recent Gamasutra interview regarding the Dead Space developer’s expansion to a global, multi-studio label, Visceral general manager Nick Earl revealed the existence of a previously unannounced Command & Conquer title.
Aside from the game being “pretty far out,” Earl wouldn’t provide any details on the next C&C. You can expect more and more games to sport the Visceral brand in the future, however, as EA hopes to use the label to promote its action and strategy releases.
R.U.S.E. – Divide & Conquer Walkthrough HD
This walkthrough highlights one of the many strategies you can develop in R.U.S.E., where deception is key to victory.
Gametrailers.com – Customized RSS Feed
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