J
4A / ENTERTAINMENT / WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
HOROSCOPES
10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.
ARIES (March 21-April 19)
Today is a 7
Seek balance today between independent study and group effort. The combination creates a practical blend. Persuade others to follow your lead.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20)
Today is a 9
An associate fuses over financial details. You may feel an independent impulse and go off on your own. But you get better results if you work together.
GEMINI (May 21-June 21)
Today is a 6
One team member feels stressed because an idea doesn't mesh with the plan. Take time to soothe any hurt feelings. Then make it fair later.
CANCER (June 22-July 22)
Today is a 6
Your project requires some changes. Use a very delicate touch and a slight mental readjustment to avoid damage. Then step back and admire.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)
Today is a 6
Early in the day, your attention shifts from work matters to a relationship based on fun. Cworkers can manage details while you pursue a recreational activity. Go play!
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22)
Today is a 6
Productivity could be tricky, with your mind on romance. Imagination carries you far from practical considerations, yet those ideas get the job done.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22)
Today is a 7
Your attention focuses on household matters today. To resolve a difficulty, first establish a balanced perspective. Then create options and choices.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21)
Today is a 7
The best foundation for today's effort is creativity. You don't need to finish anything, but you do need to get a good start. Allow emotions to flow.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)
Today is a 9
Produce and direct your own drama today. You won't need much to get fired up. A shortcut limits potential less than you'd imagined and gets you there faster.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)
Today is a 6
You feel self-contained in your plans and ideas today. Creative thinking becomes action, easily Stick to practical means and minimal budget. Then go.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb.18)
Today is a 7
Totally
To surprise someone special, maintain an outer appearance of busy activity. You can even ask questions to divert attention.
Develop your act ahead of time.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20)
Today is a 6
Most of your attention is on other people now. Research facts and listen to intuition, rather than following blindly. Protect personal assets, and then choose.
Conceptis Sudoku
By Dave Green
| | 5 | 2 | | | 1 | 9 | |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 4 | | | 6 | 1 | | 7 | |
| | | | 9 | | | 5 | |
| | | | 2 | | | 9 | |
| | | | 5 | | | 3 | |
| | | 6 | | | 4 | | |
| | 3 | | | | 6 | | |
| 7 | | | | 2 | | | |
| 6 | 9 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Difficulty Level ★★★
2010 Concepts Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate.
12/08
THE NEXT PANEL
Difficulty Level ★★
8 1 2 7 9 5 3 6 4
6 4 7 3 1 2 8 5 9
3 5 9 8 4 6 1 7 2
2 6 8 1 7 4 9 3 5
9 3 5 2 6 8 4 1 7
1 7 4 5 3 9 2 8 6
7 2 6 4 8 3 5 9 1
5 9 3 6 2 1 7 4 8
4 8 1 9 5 7 6 2 3
Multiplayer role-playing games expand influence
"It's about getting a large number of people to play." Smedley said. "It's a huge notch above current-generation shooters."
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
GAMES
This week, exceedingly popular computer game World of Warcraft undergoes a cataclysm, reshaping not just the game's landscape but how you play in the game.
The year kicked off with the launch of MAG on the Playstation 3. The first-person shooter created by the folks behind popular shooter series SOCOM supports rolling battles of up to 256 players at a time. And there is no way to play the game offline.
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games, once the home of fantasy, magic and swordplay, are increasingly diversifying to include not only new themes and settings to explore, but also new takes on what it means to roleplay and how players interact.
"I think something very big is happening in online play in general," said John Smedley, president of Sony Online Entertainment, the company behind DC Universe Online, Free Realms and EverQuest.
But World of Warcraft's reboot is nothing compared to the turmoil the entire genre is undergoing.
At first blush MAG may seem like a standard military shooter, but the game shares a lot of elements with traditional MMOs, it has gamers choose from one of three factions to play in and then tracks each player's progress, allowing them to level up their character and unlock talents.
Nicholas Sambaluk
Answer to previous puzzle
Darling, I am afraid you look more worn out than a college boy's drinking wrist on Sunday morning.
And MAG isn't the only game to combine the popularity of firstperson shooters with the addictive nature of online role-playing.
The largest MMO shooter in the world was created in Korea. Crossfire hit the United States last year and makes all of its money by charging players for premium weapons.
game he currently plays most right now, Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops, didn't create an MMO of its own soon
Smedley added that he wouldn't be surprised if the maker of the
"I think the lines for what you call a massively multiplayer online
Smedley says The Agency, which is now due out in the second half of next year, needed a lot of work, so it was delayed.
And Sony Online Entertainment is also keeping a foot planted in the realm of big budget games. DC Universe Online is currently in beta, preparing to go live soon. And spy versus spy MMO The Agency is still in the works despite significant delays.
"There was a moment in time in our company where we looked at our own stuff with a clear eye and saw we have to do better," he said of the delay. "DC Universe was held for a year-and-a-half from when we wanted to launch it and now I'm very happy with it."
game are being blurred," he said. "Now an MMO just needs to be a game where a large number of people can interact. It doesn't mean it needs a subscription or to have micro transactions."
While Sony Online Entertainment works to develop both pay to play and free to play massively online games, they also keep an eye out on the less traditional forms of massive online games, especially those made by smaller, indie developers.
"I think something very big is happening in online play in general."
Smedley says that Sony Online Entertainment are starting to invest more heavily in the freeto-play model. Kid-friendly Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures are both doing well and SOE just launched a new Facebook game called Wild Life Refuge. The publisher is also gearing up to launch a new Facebook game based on James Patterson's books that will have players hunting down a killer.
JOHN SMEDLEY
Sony Online Ent. president
League of Legends, which has players controlling heroes as they try to
take down an enemy's fortress,
isn't really massive. Less than a
dozen gamers can play in a single
match at a time. But Smedley says
that the number of people playing
matches at any given time is staggering, something that reminds him that the massive in massively multiplayer doesn't necessarily have to be in a single game. It can instead by a mammoth community built around a single game.
"These guys are doing amazing numbers," he said. "Is it an MMO? It's definitely not an MMO but they are rivaling MMO concurrency numbers."
Smedley points to Minecraft as another surprising success of a game that bridges the gap between traditional MMO and traditional single-player titles. Minecraft, which was launched after a week of development by one person and has since been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times, remains in a constant state of upgrading and beta testing.
"Great games," Smedley said,
"attract a lot of people."
ACROSS
1 Leave when things get tough
5 Jewel
8 Campus lecturer, maybe
12 Radius neighbor
13 Floral garland
14 Theater box
15 Illinois city
17 Land measure
18 Try a case again
19 Where a plug goes
21 Tackle the slopes
22 Muscular development
23 Rock band's enhancer
26 Salamander
28 Follows orders
31 "Magical Mystery —"
33 Thee
35 Hodge-podge
57 Black
58 Still
59 Turn on a pivot
36 King of Crete
38 Make a decision
40 CDs' fore-runners
41 "South Park"
kid
43 Year-end abbr.
45 Mediter-ranean eels
47 Gets more out of
51 "American —"
52 St. Patrick's Day emblem
54 Refer-ence bk.
55 "— Wieder-sehen"
56 Inter
DOWN
1 Perry
Mason
portrayer
2 Lotion
additive
3 About
2.54
centimeters
4 Erie and
others,
e.g.
5 Extol
6 Always,
in verse
7 Central
portion
8 Ersatz
pill
9 "Saturday
Evening
Post"
artist
Solution time: 21 mins.
10 Shrek, for one
11 Stocking stuffers?
16 Phony
20 Discoverer's cry
23 $ dispenser
24 Miss Piggy's pronoun
25 Sex Pistols' genre
27 Excessively
29 Shrill bark
30 "Mayday!"
30 Monarchs
34 Factor in Marilyn's "Seven Year Itch" pose
37 Crafty
39 Abound
42 English composition
44 Restraints
45 Skirt length
46 Valhalla VIP
48 Satan's purchase
49 Beige
50 Terrier type
53 Coloration
Yesterday's answer 12-8
CRYPTOQUIP
12-8 CRYPTOQUIP
ZVTND LQTL QIGYDY HTWC
HDRMNTV ZMNLGJDY IE T
XMF YMLNIH ETHMVC: LQD
RDZTJLHDWL IE XJTRC-IVIFC.
Yesterday's Cryptoquip: IF CERTAIN FEMALE KIN PUT IN THEIR OPENING POKER STAKES, I MIGHT CALL THOSE AUNTIES' ANTES.
Today's Cryptoquip Clue: L equals T
All puzzles © King Features
MOVIES
Hollywood lacks Christmas flicks
MCCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
LOS ANGELES — This year, the role of Grinch will be played by Hollywood.
The release of new Christmas movies has been as much a tradition of the season as the annual late-night TV showing of "It's a Wonderful Life" and shoppers stamped stores on Black Friday.
But this year, there's hardly a holiday movie in sight.
Instead of playing offtime-tested and universal plot lines such as a return home for the holidays or trotting out Christmas icons such as Santa Claus, Tinseltown is foregoing the usual, uh, tinsel. The lone Christmas movie, "The Nutcracker in 3D," has received tepid reviews and is appearing in only a token number of theaters.
kers.
In past seasons, there have been as many as half a dozen holiday movies jostling one another in theaters in the closing weeks of the year.
The scarcity of Christmas movies reflects a change in traditional Hollywood thinking. Family films are as popular as ever, industry executives note — indeed, the year's biggest-grossing picture is the kid-friendly "Toy Story 3" — but the film world thinks Yuletide themes are getting a bit long in the whis-
"The way to do a big-budget film these days is to take stories that everyone in the world knows and take them in a new direction," said Joe Roth, a producer and former chairman of Walt Disney Studios. "But no one's come up with a fresh way to do a holiday movie, so we're all doing it with other kinds of stories."
Roth should know: He helped create the Christmas blockbuster, overseeing two holiday-oriented "Home Alone" movies at Fox and the first release in Disney's "Santa Clause" trilogy. But this year he's not readying any Christmas films, instead concentrating on new takes on the "Snow White" and "Wizard of Oz" stories.
Those hoping Hollywood's Kringle-less Christmas is an aberration will be disappointed. There is only one known holiday movie in the development pipeline for 2011.
For decades, Christmas films have been the closest you can get to an old chestnut in Hollywood. No fewer than 57 holiday movies have been released since MGM debuted "A Christmas Carol" in 1938 (the first of six adaptations of the Charles Dickens classic, including one starring the Muppets).