MSSA's Inter-club Ladder Rules

Northcliff High School in action.

Rules allow Mind Sports South Africa's (MSSA) inter-club ladder to be played on Regional, Provincial, and National levels for all categories.

Thus a club like Northcliff High School, could theoretically become the City of Johannesburg, Gauteng and SA National ladder champions for both schools and senior ladders.

Of course that would require a number of games to be played, but who would shy away from playing games?

Teams entering the ladder may pick-and-choose who they want to challenge. In theory a team could go from being unranked to being the top ranked team.

The ladder is thus be a great deal of fun, and will, no doubt, help teams prepare for LAN championships and National Team Trials. In turn, teams will be further prepared for the international circuit.

The rules are:

INTER-CLUB LADDER

1. All affiliated clubs shall be invited to participate.
2. Initially teams shall be listed in order of ranking.
3. Inter-club tests may be held in each period.
4. Inter-club test matches may be held on Regional, Provincial, and/or National Championship levels for schools, university, and/or open as well as for the categories as per LAN championships.
5. If held on a Regional level, then such Regional Director shall be responsible for the notation of challenges, the collation of results, the write-ups of results, and the lodging of dates on MSSA's Calendar.
6. If held on a Provincial level, then such Provincial Director shall be responsible for the notation of challenges, the collation of results, the write-ups of results, and the lodging of dates on MSSA's Calendar.
7. If held on a National level, then such Gaming Representative shall be responsible for the notation of challenges, the collation of results, the write-ups of results, and the lodging of dates on MSSA's Calendar.
8. All teams shall only consist of Registered Players.
9. Clubs may enter any number of teams.
10. Results shall be submitted to the Management Board before 9H00 the day after the test was held.
11. Any team may challenge any other team in the same ladder.
12. The Chairman of the relevant BOC must be copied in on all challenges.
13. The challenged team has five (5) working days (for esports), and twenty-one (21) working days for board gaming and figure gaming, to respond and play the match.
14. A team that is challenged as per the above rules that does not play the game within five (5) working days (for esports) and twenty-one (21) working days for board gaming and figure gaming, automatically defaults and counts as having lost the match.
15. A team challenged during any official MSSA event while both teams are participating in such event, and are paired by the umpire to play against each other, must play such challenge.
16. The winning team takes the place of the losing team, if the losing team is listed higher.
17. It the winning team is listed higher, the winning team remains in its current position.
18. If the losing team is listed higher than the winning team, the losing team drops one position on the listing.
19. The highest listed team, per period, at the end of the SA National Championships is given the title of SA LADDER Champions.

All results must be submitted to mindsportscorrespondence@gmail.com

Also read:

• Ensuring gender equity in esports.
• MSSA celebrates its women who have earned Protea Colours.
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports.
• Entry fees for Provincial and National Championships
• How school clubs affiliate for the 2020 season.
• 2020 Calendar of Events
• The various events held by Mind Sports South Africa.
• Why schools and universities should invest in esports
• New National Team Selection Criteria
• Selecting the national Protea teams for Mind Sports South Africa.
• The road to Eilat

HCI International 2019

At the end of next July, the HCI (Human Computer Interface) international conference will take place in Orlando, FL.

This conference aims to discuss the intersections between culture, technology, behavior and society. The "games" subject will, surely, be one of the main discussions in the event, and I'll be in HCI presenting my paper "The Strategic Use of Smartphone Features to Create a Gaming Experience of Mystery: The Mind Alone Case".



Below, you can check the abstract of my article that will be published in a book, which will be sold at the conference:

In the present work, we discuss the creative process behind the Brazilian mobile game Mind Alone (Sioux Games, 2018). We start our discussion with a brief overview of mobile media and the Brazilian gaming market, in order to clarify why mobile games are a rich field to explore in this country, and to assess some aspects of the Brazilian gamer audience. After this introduction, we proceed to expound the main features of the game Mind Alone, aiming to finally put forward some ideas about strategic thinking in game design, game writing, and puzzle design, emphasizing the need of multidisciplinary thinking. This article recounts the whole creative process behind Mind Alone, highlighting some main phases: (1) brainstorming, including interviews with the production team at the Sioux company; (2) documentation, analyzing the "high concept template"; (3) production, elucidating the interface between art and coding (and how to merge smartphone features to create the game experience); and (4) beta-testing, comprising guidelines for a qualitative session. With this work, we intend to depict the full development of a mobile game, from brainstorming to publishing and documentation. It is important to highlight, in this context, that the author of this article was the game designer responsible for Mind Alone's mechanics and narrative.

After the conference, in August, I intend to share the PDF file with my complete article and the presentation as well.

For this trip I had the sponsorship of ON e-stadium (a Brazilian eSports arena from São Paulo) and ESPM (the college I work at) IT course.

Wait for news, pics and good content next month.

#GoGamers

An Update By The Owner Of The Blog On Games Download Link Outdated Issue

An Update By The Owner Of The Blog On Games Download Link Outdated Issue 

Few Day Before I Was Getting Comments Of Links Are OutdatedSo I Want To Just Apologize To All Of You Who Are Facing Link Outdated Issue Or The Download Links For The Game Are Not Working So Friend Just Need To Inform To You All ThatWe Are Working On This Issue And We Will Try To Fix All The Links By The End Of March And You All Will Be Able To Download Games Again So Fiend Just Need You Support And Stay Tuned And We Will Try to Fix All The Links As Soon As Possible .

Vegan On A Desert Island Wants To Become An Ironic Masterpiece

For the first time I heard of Vegan on a Desert Island I assumed it was some kind of bad joke, and frankly this impression lasted with me for a while. However, through some amazing persistence and determination from the developers, this upcoming title is slowly capturing the hearts of the libre development community through sheer charm and wits.

Determination might really be the key word here; lead developer Alex Gleason claims he's set out to answer one of humanity's most sought after existential questions: "What would a vegan do if stranded on a desert island?"

Taking it from there, the game promises action, puzzle solving, and more drama and plot twists you can (literally) shake a stick at, because everyone knows that the best way of getting answers for some real world problems is through the semblance of a Zelda-like RPG.

Yes, you read it right, this game will be an action RPG at its core, and this should come at no surprise; after all, Vegan on a Desert Island is being developed with the Solarus engine under its hood, meaning we can expect some solid Zelda-like mechanics to go along with the formula.

We have all been there.

The game is also notorious for using a considerable amount of recycled Creative Commons artwork sourced from Open Game Art. Notably its level assets are almost entirely consisting of the Zoria Tileset, which has been ported to Solarus since the last major release. All unique art crafted exclusively for the game will also be licensed under Creative Commons.

While the game hasn't yet seen an initial demo build, it attracted considerable attention (and laughs) after a short presentation by Gleason himself on Libre Planet, last March. The effort and dedication being put forward to sell a seemingly absurd concept have it stand out of the crowd, and for that, it deserves much needed credit. As for the rest of the game, it will remain a mystery for the time being, unless, of course, you wish to go ahead and compile one of their source packages.

A release is estimated for later this year, although no fixed dates have been presented yet. So let's hope this one turns out to be worth the wait, unlike most vegan food.

Code license: GPLv3
Assets license: CC-BY-SA 4.0

This post was retrieved from freegamer.blogspot.com.

Brute, Short Film, Review And Interview

The synopsis covers what the Brute is about. The symbolism of how nature reflects the individual's perception of reality gives the story another level.

Brute was screened at the 2019 FilmQuest film festival (website). It was nominated for Best Fantastic Short.

Synopsis: A young mother and her son flee an abusive husband in the middle of the night only to find themselves trapped in their car in a field with a homicidal bull.

The director, Brian Folan, shares how true life stories influenced his film. He also shares what he likes to do and what got him started in film making.

What was the inspiration for Brute?

The film was inspired by two true stories that overlapped each other. The first was the story of how my uncle was attacked by an absolutely massive bull and his account of the attack. The most frightening part was that when he finally managed to get free from the bull he jumped into a drainage ditch and the bull stalked up and down waiting for him to come out.

The second story that makes up the inspiration for Brute comes from a friend of mine who broke free from an unhealthy relationship and how she used it to completely change her life. Both are stories of the power that people discover when the chips are down.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

Brute has been getting a great response from audiences, so I'm really stoked about developing it into a feature. It's something that I'm really enjoying watch come to life.

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

Way back in school we had the chance to try film making as teenagers and I loved it, we made an anti-drugs film which was awful, think Refer Madness but without a budget, but it didn't matter, I loved how everything came together. It was edited using VHS tape to tape and the camera weighed a ton and ran on diesel. Throwing us kids into that really demystified it to me and from there I was like "I think this is me."

What would be your dream project?

Monster movie! I really liked 80s horror and fantasy. John Carpenter, John Landis, and Wes Craven are all directors that I really admire from that time and I think that they made really bold films that have such an influence today. So, for my dream project would be to bring something new to the horror genre in the same way they did.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

I have two daughters, so I don't have pastimes anymore. But when I do get the time I write. I try to write something every day regardless if its good or not. We're quite close to the mountains here in Poland so I've been hauling ass over them a lot lately. Also drinking, not sure if that qualifies.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

I really loved Jaws. It's such a great monster movie. I watched it through my mother's fingers as a child and then I got it on VHS. I watched it so much that the color completely faded, and it looked like it was all set at night. Everything about that movie is right. The dialogue is great, the characters are so well formed, or in Quint's case deformed and what a monster, not just the shark but the deceptive dark calm of the water that it swims in and how defenseless we are in his world. Wish I could see it for the first time again.

You can find out more about Brute on IMDb (link).

I'm working at keeping my material free of subscription charges by supplementing costs by being an Amazon Associate and having advertising appear. I earn a fee when people make purchases of qualified products from Amazon when they enter the site from a link on Guild Master Gaming and when people click on an ad. If you do either, thank you.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

I have articles being published by others and you can find most of them on Guild Master Gaming on Facebookand Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).

Project Gutenberg is Temporarily Unavailable

Brute, Short Film, Review And Interview

The synopsis covers what the Brute is about. The symbolism of how nature reflects the individual's perception of reality gives the story another level.

Brute was screened at the 2019 FilmQuest film festival (website). It was nominated for Best Fantastic Short.

Synopsis: A young mother and her son flee an abusive husband in the middle of the night only to find themselves trapped in their car in a field with a homicidal bull.

The director, Brian Folan, shares how true life stories influenced his film. He also shares what he likes to do and what got him started in film making.

What was the inspiration for Brute?

The film was inspired by two true stories that overlapped each other. The first was the story of how my uncle was attacked by an absolutely massive bull and his account of the attack. The most frightening part was that when he finally managed to get free from the bull he jumped into a drainage ditch and the bull stalked up and down waiting for him to come out.

The second story that makes up the inspiration for Brute comes from a friend of mine who broke free from an unhealthy relationship and how she used it to completely change her life. Both are stories of the power that people discover when the chips are down.

What project(s) do you have coming up you're excited about?

Brute has been getting a great response from audiences, so I'm really stoked about developing it into a feature. It's something that I'm really enjoying watch come to life.

What was your early inspiration for pursuing a career in film?

Way back in school we had the chance to try film making as teenagers and I loved it, we made an anti-drugs film which was awful, think Refer Madness but without a budget, but it didn't matter, I loved how everything came together. It was edited using VHS tape to tape and the camera weighed a ton and ran on diesel. Throwing us kids into that really demystified it to me and from there I was like "I think this is me."

What would be your dream project?

Monster movie! I really liked 80s horror and fantasy. John Carpenter, John Landis, and Wes Craven are all directors that I really admire from that time and I think that they made really bold films that have such an influence today. So, for my dream project would be to bring something new to the horror genre in the same way they did.

What are some of your favorite pastimes when not working on a movie?

I have two daughters, so I don't have pastimes anymore. But when I do get the time I write. I try to write something every day regardless if its good or not. We're quite close to the mountains here in Poland so I've been hauling ass over them a lot lately. Also drinking, not sure if that qualifies.

What is one of your favorite movies and why?

I really loved Jaws. It's such a great monster movie. I watched it through my mother's fingers as a child and then I got it on VHS. I watched it so much that the color completely faded, and it looked like it was all set at night. Everything about that movie is right. The dialogue is great, the characters are so well formed, or in Quint's case deformed and what a monster, not just the shark but the deceptive dark calm of the water that it swims in and how defenseless we are in his world. Wish I could see it for the first time again.

You can find out more about Brute on IMDb (link).

I'm working at keeping my material free of subscription charges by supplementing costs by being an Amazon Associate and having advertising appear. I earn a fee when people make purchases of qualified products from Amazon when they enter the site from a link on Guild Master Gaming and when people click on an ad. If you do either, thank you.

If you have a comment, suggestion, or critique please leave a comment here or send an email to guildmastergaming@gmail.com.

I have articles being published by others and you can find most of them on Guild Master Gaming on Facebookand Twitter(@GuildMstrGmng).

UCLan Games Design Experience Of WIG Conference 2019

Two of our lovely Games Design students, Catarina Martins and Stacey Satchell were at the Women in Games Conference 2019 last week.
Here's what they had to say about the experience :)

Catarina:

"Can't put into words how inspiring and amazing those couple of days were in London at the European Women in Games Conference. The gaming industry is filled with strong and talented people and I had the absolute pleasure of meeting some of them. Also managed to make really good contacts with very helpful and super nice people which I hope to see again soon!
Now is time to take all the knowledge and inspiration I received and start applying for jobs. Let the new adventure begin!"

Stacey:

"Women in Games was such a wonderful event full of uplifting and talented people from a large variety of backgrounds and roles. From Keynotes that inspired me as a women in the community to panels that taught me so much about the industry as a professional. I left with amazing advice, a positive attitude and plenty of new friends. 

Looking forward to it again next year!"
















And here's some of the photos they took at the event.
Thanks for sharing, Girls!

Brave Browser the Best privacy-focused Browser of 2020

Out of all the privacy-focused products and apps available on the market, Brave has been voted the best. Other winners of Product Hunt's Golden Kitty awards showed that there was a huge interest in privacy-enhancing products and apps such as chats, maps, and other collaboration tools.

An extremely productive year for Brave

Last year has been a pivotal one for the crypto industry, but few companies managed to see the kind of success Brave did. Almost every day of the year has been packed witch action, as the company managed to officially launch its browser, get its Basic Attention Token out, and onboard hundreds of thousands of verified publishers on its rewards platform.

Luckily, the effort Brave has been putting into its product hasn't gone unnoticed.

The company's revolutionary browser has been voted the best privacy-focused product of 2019, for which it received a Golden Kitty award. The awards, hosted by Product Hunt, were given to the most popular products across 23 different product categories.

Ryan Hoover, the founder of Product Hunt said:

"Our annual Golden Kitty awards celebrate all the great products that makers have launched throughout the year"

Brave's win is important for the company—with this year seeing the most user votes ever, it's a clear indicator of the browser's rapidly rising popularity.

Privacy and blockchain are the strongest forces in tech right now

If reaching 10 million monthly active users in December was Brave's crown achievement, then the Product Hunt award was the cherry on top.

The recognition Brave got from Product Hunt users shows that a market for privacy-focused apps is thriving. All of the apps and products that got a Golden Kitty award from Product Hunt users focused heavily on data protection. Everything from automatic investment apps and remote collaboration tools to smart home products emphasized their privacy.

AI and machine learning rose as another note-worthy trend, but blockchain seemed to be the most dominating force in app development. Blockchain-based messaging apps and maps were hugely popular with Product Hunt users, who seem to value innovation and security.

For those users, Brave is a perfect platform. The company's research and development team has recently debuted its privacy-preserving distributed VPN, which could potentially bring even more security to the user than its already existing Tor extension.

Brave's effort to revolutionize the advertising industry has also been recognized by some of the biggest names in publishing—major publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, NDTV, NPR, and Qz have all joined the platform. Some of the highest-ranking websites in the world, including Wikipedia, WikiHow, Vimeo, Internet Archive, and DuckDuckGo, are also among Brave's 390,000 verified publishers.

Earn Basic Attention Token (BAT) with Brave Web Browser

Try Brave Browser

Get $5 in free BAT to donate to the websites of your choice.