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I just wanted to point everyone in the direction of Christian McCrea's Wolves Evolve blog. Here he shares academic insights into technology, aesthetics and games. Christian is currently teaching games and cultural studies at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, and is rather a fun guy to sleuth the real identity of in anonymous internet chat rooms. xxx
http://www.wolvesevolve.com
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archive: levelHead, a Spatial Memory Game
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I've just finished the first beta (really an alpha) of my little AR/tangible-interface game levelHead. Admittedly there's not much up on the project page yet, but here's a YouTube video that conveys the general idea pretty well.
Here's a better quality video in the OGG/Theora format (plays in VLC). Enjoy.
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archive: Blender: Mesh-Modeling to Rendering (Introduction)
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Here's a manual I wrote introducing the basics of modeling, texturing and rendering using the excellent open-source software Blender for the FLOSSManuals project.
Blender isn't the sort of software you can just dive in and teach yourself so easily. It has an unusual interface but one that pays off greatly once learned. For instance, in my experience, Blender is much faster to work with - and more performant - for rapid mesh modeling than 3DSMax or Maya.
Following this manual and doing the tutorials should get you well up to speed with Blender.
Later on I'll post a section on the Realtime Game Engine part of Blender toward the ends of rapidly prototyping your game/3D interface ideas.
About FLOSSManuals: FM, initiated by Adam Hyde, seeks to provide high-quality user-contributed and maintained technical manuals for open-source software, some of which will be published as paper books on-demand.
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hello: CineKid Game Develoment Workshops at Mediamatic, Amsterdam.
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I'll be giving a 5 day game development intensive at the excellent Mediamatic, Amsterdam, alongside Friedrich Kirschner, Daniël van Gils and Klaas Kuitenbrouwer.
Here's a bit from the workshop page:
During the workshop, participants will build a prototype of their crossmedia project and develop and visualize its user-scenarios. Participants will learn the basic principles of creating machinima, designing 3D game spaces and developing game play and game rules.
Participants will also learn about trends in game culture such as massive multi-player games and new kinds of game interfaces like the Nintendo Wii. Besides this, participants will be updated on the new web culture of creating, matching and sharing user-generated content, which is very influential in game culture.
Registrations are still open, See you there!
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archive: PlayWare at Laboral, Spain.
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Playware is the second installment in the GameWorld exhibition series at Laboral in Asturias, Spain and is up and running until March 21, 2008.
Contrary to the first GameWorld exhibition - which focussed on strictly artistic explorations of computer games and gaming culture - this "expansion pack" is focussed on games that challenge traditional computer-aided play logics and interfaces
Says the site:
Playware presents the work of artists, designers, and engineers who are probing the limits and expanding the possibilities of digitally-mediated play. The exhibition establishes a continuum between two types of works:
1) ‘multiplayer’ interactive art installations that explore, often in the form of a game, new methods of playful interaction with digital information
2) ‘art game’ software made for everyday computers and gaming systems that differ from their more commercial siblings in their use of abstract, whimsical, or surreal animated environments.
Works at Playware include PingPongPlus (above image), Perfect Time, Bump, Linerider, Armadillo Run, flOw and Toribash.
See the project page here.
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archive: Escape From Woomera archived..
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Escape From Woomera is now archived here at Select Parks, it's final resting place on the internet after being shuffled around by ISPs and falling victim to some pretty sneaky domain hijacking.
This of course means that the .com and .org links for EFW kindly placed in books and essays around the globe will no longer work. From here on, use:
http://selectparks.net/archive/escapefromwoomera
Big thanks to Kipper for grabbing the site tree and passing it on to us here at SP for archiving.
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archive: Play! A Live Video Games Symphony
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Sydney Symphony Orchestra paid tribute earlier this year to the creative force behind early video game soundtracks.
Play! was a video game symphony that brought to life the award-winning music of 20 of the biggest and best computer games around. Music from the games was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Arnie Roth and backed by choral sensation Cantillation) while massive screens, suspended over the orchestra, captured stunning game play sequences. Play! ran from 19-23 June and was exclusive to the Sydney Opera House. Music was performed from games including: - Final Fantasy VI &VII
- Metal Gear Solid
- Halo
- Castlevania
- World of Warcraft
- Kingdom Hearts
- The Legend of Zelda
- Super Mario Bros
- Sonic The Hedgehog
Thanks to Marcus' Not Quite Art Show for the info and the pic. http://www.sydneyoperahouse.com/sections/whats_on/features/play/index.asp
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archive: Eddo Stern Solo Show at Postmasters, New York.
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Those of you in New York should check out Eddo's new show at Postmasters Gallery, running until October 13.
Postmaster's writes:
His new works - kinetic shadow sculptures and 3D computer animation videos - use a mash-up of documentary material from online forums, clip art, YouTube videos, midi music, electronics, and hand made puppets. They mine the online gaming world at its paradoxical extremes: on one hand, an untenable perversity of life spent slaying an endless stream of virtual monsters, on the other, an ultimate mirroring of the most familiar social dynamics. The struggles with masculinity, honor, aggression, faith, love and self worth are embroiled with the gameworld's vernacular aesthetics.
Argh, summer-stoned. I was a bit late on the money with this one. Thnx Eddo for sending it through (and see you soon)!
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theory: Evaluating User Experiences in Games
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Regina Bernhaupt writes:
Call for Position Papers
The workshop "Evaluating User Experiences in Games" invites position papers on evaluation methods for user experience in games. Submissions are invited addressing one or more of the following questions:
What kind of evaluation concepts and methods are used in the industry, and what are their limitations? Do today's game evaluation concepts and methods address industry needs? What factors of game experience are measured and have to be measured? How can we evaluate new forms and developments of interaction techniques in gaming, for example emotion or eye-movement as input for games, ambient displays or virtual environments as output? Is there a common framework of methods that are appropriate to evaluate the user experience in games?
Deadline for submission: Oct 19th 2007
More information about the workshop here.
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hello: OzCo Second Life Artists Residency Announced
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Still pinching myself over this piece of news (hence the time to post). Adam Nash, Justin Clemens and yours truly (Christopher Dodds) just won the inaugural Australia Council Second Life Artists Residency Grant. It's a AUD$20k recognition of virtual worlds as legitimate creative spaces, and I get to buy a new suit (kidding OzCo... kind of). We'll be posting progress reports on the BabelSwarm blog.
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Not Possible IRL is "Dedicated to identifying and sharing well conceived and realized visual arts n' things in second life which would not be possible in real life: architecture, landscaping, art, animations, fashion, particle effects, building tools and scripts." Two featured works you have to check out are Senuka Harbinger's SENASY (studies of fractals and formulaic art) and Keystone Bouchard's Gallery of Reflexive Architecture.
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archive: Bio-predictive game engine.
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A pair of sadistic researchers have devised a new application for bio-feedback in gameplay. By analysing pizeo-electic currents on the skin surface of the player they are able to best-guess the next move the player will make.
Coining the games that result from this interface "Frustration Games" they found that a player' intention to jump can be accurately predicted up to 2 seconds prior to the actual move.
Oh, the evil.
Via /. Related: Mindball and The Predictor.
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For some retarded reason Tekken Torture Tournament, C-Level's completely rad performance-game-mod never made it into this version of the archive.
c-level 2001
Tekken Torture Tournament was a performance event combining the latest video game technology, untapped public aggression and painful electric shock. Willing participants were wired into a custom fighting system - a modified Playstation (running Tekken 3) which converts virtual on screen damage into bracing, non-lethal, electric shocks.
C-Level appear to have disbanded now, but the physically brutal memories live on at their website:
http://www.c-level.cc/tekken1.html
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Chris O' Shea sent us through an article by Wired's Clive Thompson collecting his experiences making levels in Dungeon Maker for himself to play in.
In the wake of transformative titles like Little Big Planet this conversation of level design as an active function of play is timely.
Says Clive:
By the time I'd crafted my fourth level, I had the surreal experience of revisiting my first level and literally being unable to remember why the hell I made the creative decisions I'd made. Stupid, stupid: Putting the staircase in the far northeast passage? What was I thinking? "Man," I thought as I lumbered down yet another passageway, "this dungeon blows."
Read it here.
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I'm heartin' all this live-digital hybrid game stuff at the moment. Here's an upcoming performance from 5-8 of September at Sydney's Performance Space:
Wayfarer by Kate Richards and Martyn Coutts is a live game space, where teams of audience direct their player through a mysterious, hidden territory. The performer's body-mounted computers send streamed video, audio and locative data to the Wayfarer software, which is projected back to the audience.
Part exploration, part competition, part surreal thriller, Wayfarer is a truly hybrid event, where live and mediated performance, urban choreography, ubiquitous computing, gameplay and site specificity come together in a volatile mix.
Performance Space recommends booking a team of 4 or 5 people. If any readers in Syd get a chance to play we'd love to publish your thoughts on the work afterwards as sadly non of us Parkians will be in town for the event.
Also worth mentioning are the names of Mr Snow and Jon Drummond, tech brains involved in this and other interesting interactive projects.
More info can be found on the Performance Space website.
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archive: IGN asks: Is this the year of the Arthouse Videogame?
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The IGN has some fairly comprehensive coverage of the Indiecade titles that appeared at E3 this year, from Bill Viola to Blast Theory.
Aye, I would've posted this earlier but it seems holidays got the better of me..
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archive: 50 Really Good Indie Games
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The Independent Gaming Source has got a nice collection of 50 Indie Games, including everyone's favourites Darwinia, Flow and Gish, plus a bunch of others I'm looking forward to playing!
http://www.tigsource.com/features/games1-10.html
Thx Leon!
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hello: Free Play Conf Melbourne Ticket Giveaway
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The Next Wave Free Play Independent Game Developers Conference is coming up at ACMI, August 18th. This is the primary Australian Independent Game Developer's conference and we're offering one diligent little games enthusiast a free double pass in exchange for a short review on Selectparks. I'll be speaking there, so get your entries in to [email protected] to check out how rad I am.
“It’s the game equivalent of hand-held, no budget, lo-fi, 4-track, DIY and it’s probably one of the best and most vibrant areas of Australian culture.” Binh Nguyen, past Free Play attendee.
More info about Free Play can be found at http://www.nextwave.org.au/
or http://nextwavefreeplay.blogspot.com/
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hello: DIMEA 07 - Call for Participation.
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Nur writes:
Call For Participation for the DIMEA 2007.
The Second International Conference on Digital Interactive Media in Entertainment and Arts will be held on the 19th - 21st September 2007 in Perth, Western Australia.
Want to see the robot comedian PaPe-jiro? Take a look at the latest Game Sketching Project? Don't missed this years DIMEA 2007.
Read on for more info.
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theory: Ebert vs Barker: Videogames are not 'High Art'.
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Says Ebert:
Barker is right that we can debate art forever. I mentioned that a Campbell's soup could be art. I was imprecise. Actually, it is Andy Warhol's painting of the label that is art. Would Warhol have considered Clive Barker's video game "Undying" as art? Certainly. He would have kept it in its shrink-wrapped box, placed it inside a Plexiglas display case, mounted it on a pedestal, and labeled it "Video Game."
Wait.. I'm confused. Do you mean something like this?
Ebert, I think you need to get out more.
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hello: VIDA 1.0: Artifical Life Competition
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Monica writes:
VIDA 10.0 is an international competition created to reward excellence in artistic creativity in the fields of Artificial Life and related disciplines, such as robotics and Artiftcial Intelligence.We are looking for artistic projects that address the interaction between "synthetic" and "organic" life".
In previous years prizes have been awarded to artistic projects using autonomous robots, avatars, recursive chaotic algorithms, knowbots, cellular automata, computer viruses, virtual ecologies that evolve with user participation, and works that highlight the social side of Artificial Life.
The first prize is a cool €10,000. Read the application guidelines in English and in Español.
TY Monica!
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archive: Old school game commercial
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Friedrich Kirschner has made a great little D.I.Y 3D-Scanner, software and all.
The ingredients:
- 1 Webcam
- 1 Tupperware Bowl
- 3 cups of Milk
- 1 custom LEGO rig
Nice work fiezi and thanks to Brandano for putting me onto it. Watch the Milk-Scanner in action here.
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Marketers pulling out of Second Life
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A vocal number of SL players consider themselves more citizens than users and they aren't at all pleased with the brave new-world of trans-corporeal capitalism.
"The LA Times is running a story today saying that marketers are pulling out of Second Life, primarily because — surprise, surprise — the 'more than 8 million residents' figure on the game's Web site is grossly inflated. Also, as it turns out, the virtual world's regular visitors — at most 40,000 of them online at any time — are not only disinterested in in-world marketing, but actively hostile to it, staging attacks on corporate presences such as the Reebok and American Apparel stores. The companies aren't giving up on virtual worlds altogether, though, but moving on to games like There, Gaia Online and Entropia Universe.
This does beg the question: if commercial interest continues to pull out of SL - and the real-estate market slumps as a result - will Linden Labs have to increase subscription costs to stay in business?
Thankfully the world my body is dependent on isn't supported by a subscription model! Oh, wait... nevermind..
Perhaps even more interesting is:
"The article also contains some commentary from a marketing executive who conducted an informal survey of the game and discovered that 'One of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia.' What company wouldn't want to be in on that action?"
See, SL isn't just about flirting and real-estate. Who said that anyway?
via /.
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At the expense of sounding like an ad, this E3 trailer of Little Big Planet has me twitching in the direction of my wallet. Perhaps it's time to cave-in and buy that lounge-invader they call PS3 afterall.
I had no idea the collaborative level editing would be quite so loose.. I wonder if it's possible to distribute levels/maps?
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archive: Experimental Games feature at E3
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Thanks to the pioneering work of Celia Pearce and friends, several experimental games will appear as a part of an IndieCade showcase at E3 this year.
Some of the games featured include EveryDayShooter, And Yet It Moves, and Can You See Me Now. Pix and I were also very lucky to have been invited to put something in the showcase too. Thanks!
This is certainly something of a milestone for experimental/artistic game development, if only to let Goliath know that David exists.. bah, you get the idea ;)
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You've gotta feel for the poor fellow. Play now.
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Gamasutra asks, Who Says Games have to be Fun?"
A good overview for those a little lost on so-called Serious Games. Alongside it offers a few healthy perspectives from the likes of Frasca, Bogost and Molleindustria.
Says Ian:
“For 30 years now we’ve focused on making games produce fun,” adds Bogost. “Isn’t it about time we started working toward other kinds of emotional responses?”
.. that and a broader scope for where we allow ourselves to have fun.. Why is it so often considered somehow wrong/evil to have fun engaging with a 'serious' topic?
The effect of having fun is often produced when we're taking risks and learning from those risks, with the reward of increased freedom of movement, control and/or understanding. Several 'serious games' I've played provide directly for this already..
I've archived this link in the Theory section for posterity.
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tech: Global DoD Sim puts you in the picture.
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"The US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality. Putting supercomputers to an innovative use, the military is simulating our planet in an effort to predict the outcome of different scenarios. They might run tests to see how long 'you' can go without food or water, or how 'you' will respond to televised propaganda. Billions of nodes are created in the system, intended to reflect every man, woman, and child.
'Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a "synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information", according to a concept paper for the project. Simulex is the company developing these systems, and they list pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and defense contractor Lockheed Martin among their private sector clients.
The U.S. military is their biggest customer, apparently now running the most complex version of the system. JFCOM-9 is now capable of running real-time simulations for up to 62 nations, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and China. The simulations gobble up breaking news, census data, economic indicators, and climactic events in the real world, along with proprietary information such as military intelligence."
Via /.
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archive: New art game added to archive: Pollen Sonata
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Several weeks ago I was teaching at the ITU and had the pleasure of beta-testing a little game called Pollen Sonata. While it had a few rough spots it certainly showed a lot of promise back then.
Pollen Sonata is meditative, to say the least: the mix of navigating in wind currents (the work with force vectors is quite impressive) sound-design and soft colour-palette had me quite preoccupied with my my new life as a small cluster of pollen. Once finished playing I was left looking for a genre with which to describe it and arrived at Casual Ambient.
Pollen Sonata has come out of beta and a Wii-mote (not sure whether they're aiming for the console itself) adaptation/port is on the way.
See the video here. Thanks Joy and friends - keep up the good work.
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| Tuesday, June 12 | | · | BF announces open-source game project, 'Apricot'. |
| Monday, June 11 | | · | Laboral Game Development Workshops |
| Monday, June 04 | | · | Torrent Raiders |
| Friday, May 25 | | · | SAMD 2007: CFP |
| Wednesday, May 23 | | · | Second Life Artist Residency |
| Tuesday, May 15 | | · | Synthetic Performances |
| Monday, May 14 | | · | RMIT student project: Terra Transeo |
| Friday, May 11 | | · | Cryptic Studios releases in-house anim tool under GPL. |
| Wednesday, May 09 | | · | New submission: Domestic Tension. |
| · | Stringwalker: VR with strings attached |
| Monday, May 07 | | · | Intimate Game Controllers |
| Saturday, May 05 | | · | 2ndPS2: Second Person Shooter for Two Players. |
| Thursday, May 03 | | · | Teenager suspended for making map of schoolgrounds. |
| Saturday, April 28 | | · | Ecriture Videoludique: New French blog on Art and Games |
| Wednesday, April 25 | | · | New Paper Submission: The Rendered Arena - Axel Stockburger |
| · | WiiHelm: Casual gaming for the sleep deprived. |
| Wednesday, April 18 | | · | Not a Wall |
| · | AcmiPark - A Case Study of a Virtual Public Place |
| Tuesday, April 17 | | · | Darkgame: 2P Sensory Deprivation Skirmish. |
| Monday, April 16 | | · | Roy Block |
| · | Nude Avatar Descending a Staircase |
| Friday, April 13 | | · | Reload |
| Thursday, April 12 | | · | Philosophical Games |
| Wednesday, April 11 | | · | Top Ten Gaming System Hacks |
| Tuesday, April 10 | | · | Invitation to register for Urban Play Space Seminar, Melb.au |
| Thursday, April 05 | | · | Women in Games 2007 Conference |
| Wednesday, April 04 | | · | Coverage of Gameworld at Laboral |
| Wednesday, March 21 | | · | Exhibition: Trash This City |
| Tuesday, March 20 | | · | The Narrative Exploration Engine |
| Monday, March 19 | | · | LAMP - Story Of The Future Residential Lab |
| Sunday, March 18 | | · | 2007 Bitfilm Festival |
| Wednesday, March 14 | | · | Flowery Twats |
| Wednesday, March 07 | | · | Mixed Realities: Turbulence Commissions |
| Tuesday, March 06 | | · | Videogames and Art, the book. |
| Saturday, March 03 | | · | Rapid prototyping for the Wiimote using Blender |
| Friday, February 23 | | · | CFP 4th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment, 2007 |
| Wednesday, February 21 | | · | Free Tickets to ACMI Machinima Festival |
| · | Long exposure games |
| Tuesday, February 20 | | · | Blender 2.43 Released |
| Monday, February 19 | | · | ACMI Machinima Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia |
| Thursday, February 15 | | · | Living Game Worlds at Georgia Tech |
| Thursday, February 08 | | · | Fijuu2 packages released for Ubuntu |
| Wednesday, February 07 | | · | Psychoanalysing Horror Games |
| Sunday, February 04 | | · | ACE 2007 reminder. Feb 9 DL for demos and short papers. |
| Thursday, February 01 | | · | Packet Garden 1.0 Released for Linux, Windows and OS X. |
| Wednesday, January 24 | | · | Get a First Life |
| Friday, January 19 | | · | Senior Lecturer in Game Art needed for U.K position |
| Wednesday, January 17 | | · | Interactive Second Life Sculpture Park |
| Tuesday, January 16 | | · | DUGG! |
| Sunday, January 14 | | · | Nationality: Pirate Bay |
Older Articles
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