IO Interactive

Io-Interactive A/S (commonly abbreviated to IOI, on releases covered as and commony referred to as IO Interactive) is a Danish development studio owned by Square Enix Europe, a subsidiary of Square Enix. The company was founded in September 1998 by the Reto-Moto development group. To date, their most popular franchise is the Hitman series. This team is also known for their references (also known as an Easter egg) to their own games, such as Agent 47 advertising designer clothes in Freedom Fighters or Hitman: Absolution featuring Kane & Lynch.

History

Io-Interactive was founded in September 1998 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Initially an independent company, they developed their debut title, Hitman: Codename 47, released in 2000. The game was published through Eidos Interactive, and, upon release, received generally positive critical reception, being praised for its wide range of weapons, the smart AI and the realism, while being criticized for its lackluster camera, length and not living up to expectations. The game currently has a score of 73/100 on review aggregate site Metacritic, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Square Enix

Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア・エニックス・ホールディングス, Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea Enikkusu Hōrudingusu) is a Japanese video game developer, publisher, and distribution company that is best known for its role-playing video game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts role-playing game series. Its headquarters are located in the Shinjuku Eastside Square Building in Shinjuku, Tokyo.

The original Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between Square and Enix. The merger occurred on April 1, 2003 with Enix as the surviving company. Each share of Square's common stock was exchanged for 0.85 shares of Enix's common stock. At the time, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square Co. employees. As part of the merger, former Square president Yoichi Wada was appointed president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda became its vice president. The founder of Enix, Yasuhiro Fukushima, currently serves as the honorary chairman and largest shareholder of the corporation.

Contract killing

Contract killing is a form of murder in which one party hires another party to kill a target individual or group of people. It involves an illegal agreement between two or more parties in which one party agrees to kill the target in exchange for some form of payment, monetary or otherwise. Either party may be a person, group, or an organization.

Throughout history, contract killing has been associated with organized crime and with vendettas. For example, in recent United States history, the gang Murder, Inc. committed hundreds of murders on behalf of the National Crime Syndicate.

Contract killing provides the hiring party with the advantage of not having to commit the actual killing, making it more difficult to connect said party with the murder. The likelihood the authorities will establish that party's guilt for the committed crime, especially due to lack of forensic evidence linked to the contracting party, makes the case more difficult to solve in many instances.

It is also often used by a person who do not have the fortitude to carry out the killing themselves, such as a spouse contracting the murder of their partner.

The Know

The Know is an Australian talk show on Max. The pop culture show features Yumi Stynes, musician Jimmy Barnes and actress Lisa Hensley as the main show hosts along with former Machine Gun Fellatio keyboardist, Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab. The show discusses and reviews movies, music, television and the creative arts.

Former Panelists

External links

Interactivity

Across the many fields concerned with interactivity, including information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, communication, and industrial design, there is little agreement over the meaning of the term interactivity, although all are related to interaction with computers and other machines with a user interface.

Multiple views on interactivity exist. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:

One body of research has made a strong distinction between interaction and interactivity. As the suffix 'ity' is used to form nouns that denote a quality or condition, this body of research has defined interactivity as the 'quality or condition of interaction'. These researchers suggest that the distinction between interaction and interactivity is important since interaction may be present in any given setting, but the quality of the interaction varies from low and high.