GRAPH-ITTI: The PAC-MAN Percentile

Net Values: The State of The Internet 2009 -- and Raley Guest-Blogs!

Raley here, folks! The Dabbler's been called away by some entertainment big-wigs (oh, I can't tell a fib: he's glued to Access Hollywood and Corey Haim) so I told him I'd happily guestblog a post or two. After all, if it had been the other Corey -- he would've done the exact same for me. 

Seriously, everyone at our Home Office is very sorry to hear about Corey Haim's death earlier today; like Britney Murphy in December, it's a tragedy - and it's scary - any way you look at it. But I'll tell you what's just as scary, and maybe even scarier: how quickly somebody updated those folks' Wikipedia pages. I'm online all day and I'd swear, Corey Haim's Wikipedia page was updated (that he'd died) ten minutes before the ambulance arrived at his mom's place! How do they do that? I don't know what to think about that, guys, I really don't.

The good news for dabblers is that abbracadabbling's ComicTech boys found this truly visual way to help us all make some sense of that 'world wide' craziness.  While I wasn't too surprised by a lot of the data, having the actual numbers really does put today's State of The Internet into perspective. I was shocked to see that laptop and netbook users are closing the gap on desktoppers like me, though. And what's with the United States getting fifth place for internet penetration? Take a look, guys, then be sure to share your thoughts with me in our Comments section down below!

(It's Raley again! Had to duck in here because the people who pulled this info together did an extremely thorough job. We were all shocked - in a pleasantly surprised shocked sort of way - to discover that even our little comicsblog made its way into the researchers' data set. Of course, we weren't surprised at all by their results. It's amazing what statisticians can figure out these days...!)

And that's The State of The Internet in 2009, boys and girls. I don't know about you, but I've got a feeling we'll see some big changes in next year's numbers after the iPad - and a gazillion others - hit the Best Buy in a few months. I'm curious how tablets will impact not just comics - but life for all us bloggers, too. I just know Dabbler's going to send me off to some Yaoi Con somewhere and make me Live-Blog.  Not that I'd be hating that or anything... Thanks for being on the comicsblog with me tonight, dabblers. Keep it real, and keep abbracadabbling!

NOTE: The views expressed by guest-bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of abbracadabbling. Views expressed are opinions only, and should not be regarded as fact.

Source: FOCUS Online [link]

Consoling Numbers: The Secret Lives of American Gamers

Probably months before it light-cycles a neon path into theaters this Christmas, the glowing world of Tron: Legacy will accessible to anyone with a PS3, an X-box, maybe even a Wii.  After all, the movie is set in a video game arcade! At least, the original Tron was, back in 1982 - a primitive time when folks had barely graduated from Pong and somehow got by with only an Atari joystick to pass the time.  We live in a very different world than we did thirty years ago, and from the looks of it, we'd better be careful or we'll end up with Tron as our neighbor. Of course, then we'd have light-cycles in our garage...and that doesn't really sound so bad. Hmmm...

Here's a designer - and informative - look into the secret life of the video game - and the people who play them - all-American style:

Role-Playing and Information Design

World of Warcraft, Half-Life, and Grand Theft Auto may all be able to trace their roots back to 1972 and Atari's Pong, but video games wouldn't be what they are today if Dungeons and Dragons, the first RPG (role-playing game) hadn't also come along two years later. From there, the stories meet and mingle, and even the best Dungeon Masters would have a hard time traversing their complicated histories.

Graphic artist and web designer Trish Ladd has done exactly that using the principles of information design. Information Design is the practice of gathering, filtering, and presenting information in accordance with effective design principles in order to understand and communicate the essence or the meaning of that information. It's a field that mixes artistic talent with mathematics and scholarly research, the results of which can be quite impressive.

Ladd's interest is in web and interactive media storytelling, and she's taken information design to task by charting the thirty-five year history of role-playing games (above). It looks like a map, and in a way, it is. But its also an intricate web of relationships and of the evolution of a very different kind of technology.

We admit that it's difficult to see the details of Ladd's The History of Role-Playing Games from the image we've got to offer. She does provide anyone who's interested in a better look at her 'map' to actually download the file, which measures 3000 x 2000 px. It's definitely worth closer inspection, and even if the intricacies of her work aren't your cup of tea, we think Ladd's History would make a great wall-hanging for your next Magic The Gathering get-together.

Ladd provides a brief explanation and a download of her informational design at the [Link].