Game Culture

Magic Pen game

2008-06-06T21:50:00.002+01:00

A game that you draw shapes that has "gravity".

http://magic.pen.fizzlebot.com/

TOYSREVIL'S

2008-05-31T19:55:00.002+01:00

Another paper toy!
I haven't tried yet (I'm just waiting start summer break!) :)

http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/2008/05/dookie-poo-lounge.html

Cubeecraft

2008-05-26T10:58:00.003+01:00

Cubeecraft offers a new cube character download every week. It is fun and simple, just print, cut and fold. :) Kirby, Venus de Milo and Domo-kun are my favourites.

le -go, go go!

2008-05-02T14:31:00.002+01:00

le - go!

2008-05-02T14:07:00.000+01:00

the games we play(ed)

2008-05-02T14:03:00.002+01:00

leg godt

2008-05-02T13:19:00.005+01:00

games we played

2008-05-02T12:42:00.011+01:00

Here is a list of games we played during the module (spring 2008)
Maybe someone would like to update the post with better/missing pictures?

Sevens (card game)

1000 miles / Fast and Furious (I wasn't present this time, is this the correct name?)
(The French name is Mille Bornes or 'Thousand Milestones'. Digital version here.

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Blocks

Animal Tracks

Flux or Fluxx:

Binatone: TV Master MK IV

LEGO

2008-05-02T09:53:00.006+01:00

toy etymology: [Origin: 1275–1325; ME toye dalliance; of obscure orig.]

an update on the Iran / Barbie news story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7371771.stm

call for papers: postgrad games conference

2008-05-01T09:41:00.000+01:00

The 2nd Brunel University Annual Postgraduate Games Conference, 16th September 2008

Deadline for abstracts 15th June 2008.

Keynote Speaker: Peter Molyneux, Lionhead Studios.

Paper proposals are sought for the Digital Games : Theory & Design postgraduate conference at Brunel University in Uxbridge, London to be held on 16/09/2008. The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for postgraduate games studies students to present work or work-in-progress to their peers and more experienced games researchers. Any postgraduate Masters or PhD student whose work includes a focus on digital games is invited to send a proposal.

The deadline for abstracts to be submitted is 15/06/2008, and the review committee will notify successful candidates by 01/07/2008. An abstract should outline the central argument, focus and study area of the proposed paper and be no longer than a page, along with a brief biography. A paper presentation should be maximum 20 minutes long , allowing 10 minutes for Q&A.

The conference will be broadcast into Second Life.

The theme of the conference is "Theory & Design", and some sample areas of interest are listed below: history of games, game theory, combat systems, socio-cultural issues, community, gaming culture, game genre, design possibilities for the next generation, ethnicity, sound, character, immersion, play, widening markets, sex, casual games, agency, time & space, education, economic and industrial analysis, narrative, game auteurs, graphical styles, empirical analysis, gender, intermediality & transmediality, localisation, violence, political/serious games. Other topics related to Digital Game Theory and Design are also welcomed.

A website will be available with more details shortly.

Please submit your abstract to Tanya.krzywinska@brunel.ac.uk

barbie

2008-04-26T14:42:00.003+01:00

OMG, i had this one, isn't it so beautiful!! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbU8Vj1PhKQ

I also found out that there are several groups for old toy pictures in flickr, for examle TOYS IN THE 1970-80S group and Barbie group.

So, this all as a reference to our toy talk this week.

Website using webcam

2008-04-25T07:22:00.003+01:00

Website that you can navigate purely by webcam.

Very interesting! It's good to think about all the possibilities of using this also to a game.

http://www.hrp.com/

games from last meeting

2008-04-23T13:39:00.003+01:00

We had a look at these games during the last Game Culture lesson:

Line Rider
and
Crayon Physics

great games

2008-04-17T11:52:00.002+01:00

Have a game at Retro Sabotage! Personally I like Incompatible Visions and What Next? About Incompatible Visions: keep playing until you laugh, do not stop with the first smile. ;)

Playground Play & Games

2008-03-20T15:06:00.003Z

Short Radio 4 series presented by Michael Rosen about play and games in the school playground. Yesterday's episode revisited the work of Opie that we briefly discussed in the seminar a few weeks ago. Well worth a listen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/peopleintheplayground/pip/oh7p6/

All the Internet's a Game

2008-03-20T14:22:00.003Z

GameLayers wants to turn Web browsing into a massive game.

Read the article at MIT Technology Review.

Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition

2008-03-14T11:57:00.002Z

See the link on the title: Guinness World Records now covers game-related records, too. Among others there is a record of 'First Ever Gaming Clan', 'Most Succesful Film Based on a Video Game' and 'The best Civilization player'.

forthcoming events

2008-03-14T10:09:00.002Z

The Performance and Screen Media Research Group at University of Wales, Newport's seminar series (including one in conjunction with the Play Research Group). Let me know if you are interested in going to any of these - and we'll let you all know if we can offer a lift:

19th March 2008 1700-1900
Room H8 Rathmell
Internal Research Seminar – A response to Geoffrey Batchen “Electricity Made Visible”
Re-animating the Dead - Helen Sear
Bringing the Body back into Play - Emma Westecott
Chair: David Surman

2nd April 2008 1900-2100
Bush House, Top Floor of Arnolfini Building, Bristol
External Speaker in collaboration with UWE
Larissa Hjorth, Lecturer Digital Art, Games Program at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
[Title TBC, but relating to her work with Technology Culture in South East Asia]

16th April 2008 1700-1900
Room H8 Rathmell
External SpeakerDr Diane Carr, Institute of Education, London
[Title TBC, but related to her work with Machinima]

30th April 20081700-1800
Room H8 Rathmell
Reading Group: Widescreen Aesthetics and Mise en Scene Criticism Velvet Light Trap No 21 Summer 1985 David Bordwell [available for download on http://idisk.mac.com/shenerd-Public?view=web]

A Teaser (and an ad)

2008-03-13T21:44:00.004Z

Referring to our excellent presentations on the borders of play today, here is a sentence from the prologue of our forthcoming book, Extending Experiences: "Chapters in Part 2, Bordering Play, address the forms of computer game play which somehow, either practically or conceptually break out from the ”magic circle”". Sounds familiar? The layout of the book was just finished and the book was sent to the publisher earlier this week. I will tell you when it is out...

Haptics - More than Just a Vibrating Controller

2008-03-11T16:49:00.001Z

R.I.P. Gary Gygax

2008-03-07T17:13:00.009Z

Gary Gygax, also known as the father of Dungeons & Dragons games, and therefore the 'grandfather' of MMORPGs and alike, has died at the age of 69. Wired news writes: "Gygax went well beyond the role of game developer and became an icon to gamers, appearing as himself in episodes of Futurama and Code Monkeys and participating in discussions on roleplaying-related message boards".

It is heartbreaking to follow the player commentary on his death here. And how many there are mourning online within this community! Like someone writes on the forum: "All and every gamers in the world are mourning this week". I am also sure Gary would be happy about the kind humour that is been shared on a sad moment.

meet pivotal games

2008-03-07T13:27:00.001Z

Meet Pivotal Games 1 April 6-8pm Pervasive Media Studio

A Creative Technology Network event: Bath based Pivotal Games are looking to recruit talented individuals for a range of positions - from concept artists to programmers.

At this evening event, Art Manager David Cullinane, will introduce Pivotal, present demos of their games, and give attendees the chance to hear more about the opportunities available.
To book a place, please go to:
http://www.creativetechnologynetwork.co.uk/item/142/93/245/3

Sharkrunners

2008-03-03T11:54:00.003Z

"Sharkrunners, designed for Discovery Channel's 20th Anniversary Shark Week, is a persistent game of oceanic exploration and high stakes shark research. Players take on the role of marine biologists who seek to learn as much as possible about sharks through advanced observation techniques.

In the game, players control their ships, but the sharks are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins. Real-world telemetry data provides the position and movement of actual great white sharks in the game, so every shark that players encounter corresponds to a real shark in the real world.

Ships in the game move in real-time, so players receive email and/or SMS alerts during the day when their boat is within range of an encounter. Players login, choose crewmembers and an approach technique, and then collect various data from the nearby sharks.

Play now!"

(http://www.playareacode.com/work/sharkrunners/)

Boneless girl: Ultimate objectified female body

2008-02-28T23:51:00.006Z

Try it by yourself here. This casual game works so well that it is just fun to play even if there seems to be no goal at all. Trickiest part is to get her through very tight places. I would like to try a male version of this game, because the girl makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. She is like a dead body .Maybe if she had more clothes it would make a difference...

Oh, here is a Bush-version, fortunately clothes on.

Japan crossword

2008-02-28T22:09:00.003Z

In case my explantion did not make the idea of Japan crossword (aka Nonogram, Paint By Numbers, Griddler, CrossPix, Hanjie) clear, here is a picture of one in progress. Sorry about the bad quality, my better camera is luckier than me at the moment as it is travelling somewhere around San Francisco bay area. ;)

Try it online here (this one is very easy).

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

2008-02-27T18:17:00.003Z

I have just started to record my Wii ethnography in a blog and would appreciate any comments or suggestions. It is still in its early stages and I am having a few problems digitsing the footage that I intend to post but hopefully these technical issues will be sorted by the weekend. Here is the URL:

http://y-ope.blogspot.com/

I am currenlty preparing a post that focuses on the relationship between Mii avatars and their creators and will support this using some recordings of my girlfriend and I creating our Miis for the first time.

I found some work completed by Robbie Cooper that investigates avatars and their creators, he photographed game players and contrasted them with the avatars that they had created:

http://www.confundo.net/AlterEgo/index.html

http://www.opendemocracy.net/arts/alterego_4620.jsp

There was recently a documentary on BBC2, although I think it was originally aired on BBC4, that tackles the relationship between real and virtual worlds. It is on YouTube (in many pieces of course!) but has expired on iPlayer already. Here is the first part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PniWHuv9Xko

Doom Rickroller

2008-02-27T15:57:00.001Z

welcome

2008-01-30T12:41:00.000Z

Welcome to this year's Game Culture cohort. Please use this blog to comment on the module, your research, your play, or to share games and play related links and resources.

For starters, have a look at Hanna's recent posts to the Power Up blog too.

Pocket Guitar

2008-01-24T12:54:00.000Z

How about using the iPhone / iPod Touch as a musical instrument?
Download the source from Google Code.

Are Games Art?

2008-01-22T21:40:00.000Z

Well that debate's settled once and for all.

Wiimote Hacks

2008-01-22T11:01:00.000Z

The Wiimote's proving a lot of fun for hardware hacks.

Spring Horse - Wiimote Controlled Need For Speed

You might also be interested to read about Johnny Chung Lee's work.

I've actually built the following "Desktop VR" system myself and will be posting some info about it in the near future,

US Army Video Games Office

2007-12-14T13:28:00.000Z

As reported in Wired and Training and Simulation Journal, following the success of America's Army, the US Army's "Training and Doctrine Command’s (TRADOC) Project Office for Gaming, or TPO Gaming" is a new "... project office, just for building and deploying games."

63% of US play videogames

2007-12-14T12:10:00.000Z

A new report from NPD claims that nearly two thirds of the population of the USA play video games.

"In terms of the number of gamers in the U.S. and the amount of time spent playing them, 63 percent of the U.S. population plays video games - defined as console and portable games, PC games, games on kid-oriented systems or games on devices like cell phones or iPods"

Audio Games

2007-11-23T12:12:00.000Z

My current project is to do with audio games, and I thought you might be interested to hear about them.

Essentially they're games which use audio instead of visual feedback, and they come in many different genres, including FPS, RTS and driving.

These games are mostly made by visually impaired hobby developers for other players, but some players can even play regular visual games simply due to the amount of audio cues they provide.

I find this an extremely interesting culture, the way these games reference other existing styles, how they remediate from visual media to aural, the enabling qualities of hobby programming, and the communication and organisational possibilities of the internet.

It's refreshing to consider non-mainstream cultures of gaming such as women, the elderly and now visually impaired players.

Fascinating stuff!

Audio Games, Memory, Aging

2007-11-20T10:26:00.000Z

Dr. Elizabeth Zelinski, Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California recently presented a report at The Gerontological Society of America into the effects of memory in aging players of an audio game.

The Posit Science Brain Fitness Program was played by elderly users and compared to a control group who watched educational videos. It was found that concentrating on the auditory stimulation in the game enhanced the player's memory.

Mob Zombies

2007-11-13T10:15:00.000Z

Nothing to do with FlashMobs, this is an Augmented Reality game.
It doesn't strike me as a very good idea to run around a crowded room without looking where you're going, though.

When work becomes a game

2007-10-22T14:05:00.000+01:00

Look! Yet another article that acknowledges the fact that some of us gamers are over 30 :)

On a more serious note it's interesting that employers are now thinking of ways to incorporate play-like elements into work...

Are Video Games Art?

2007-10-02T12:28:00.000+01:00

Smuts asks the same question that seems to keep coming up again and again, are video games art? He states that this question has not been addressed in philosophy of art field, despite it being asked over and over by players, developers and game studies scholars.

My personal opinion is yes, of course games like any medium can be art, but the more interesting question as Smuts raises, is what kind? i.e., what are the aesthetics of game play? This has to be a plural answer as the nature of interactivity and play varies with each game. It is possible to talk about the aesthetics of ludus and paidia as many have before, and about the aesthetics of embodiment as I have in my MA thesis, but to subsume all video game play under a single, comprehensive umbrella would be too broad to be useful.

Ebert, Roger. Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker (Chicago Sun-Times, 21st July 2007).
gamepolitics. Are Video Games Art? (Game Politics, 9th September 2006).
Musgrove, Mike. Monster Fun. But Is It Art? (Washington Post, 15th September 2007).
Ochalla, Bryan. Are Games Art? (Here We Go Again...) (Gamasutra, 16th March 2007).
Smuts, Aaron. Are Video Games Art? (Contemporary Aesthetics, 2nd November 2005).
Smuts, Aaron. Video Games and the Philosophy of Art (Aethetics Online, 10th February 2007).
tmenezes. Are Games Art? (Kuro5hin, 10th September 2002).
White, Gareth. Embodied Evil - The Aesthetics of Embodiment in Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (University of the West of England, 20th August 2007).

Caillois and Video Games

2007-09-24T13:40:00.000+01:00

Chris Bateman (who it turns out, I used to work with when I started out in the games industry back in the late 90's) has a series of posts about Caillois' terminology for play and games.

Mario Manualist Vs Guitarist: FIGHT!

2007-09-04T15:48:00.000+01:00

I think the Super Mario Brothers theme tune is to games music what the Utah teapot is to 3D graphics. It's the litmus test, the reference point to which all forms measure themselves against.

What's your favourite SMB version?

I think I like the Tesla coil best.

The Higher Stages of the Barbarian Culture

2007-09-03T16:56:00.000+01:00

I came across an old article on The Escapist called "Theory of the Gaming Class" by Mark Wallace

It begins with a discussion of Thorstein Veblen's 1899 work on economics and society, The Theory of the Leisure Class. Wallace argues that leisure - and gaming in particular - are markers of social status, but I would argue he does so without considering the broader economic constraints in which games are produced and marketed to us as a consumer class. Consider for example, the analysis in Dovey and Kennedy's Game Cultures and Lister et al. New Media: A Critical Introduction

Soon enough, games will be the single most culturally important entertainment medium out there, the yardstick by which we measure our leisure time - and thus our station in society. When that happens, all your cool will belong to us.

Introducing Eludamos

2007-09-03T13:46:00.000+01:00

There's a new video game's blog on the block and it's called Eludamos. It's only biannual but still it's good to see a new online publication.

Koster's Theory of Fun

2007-08-30T15:55:00.000+01:00

I was at an interview with Ubisoft a couple of days ago, chatting to a designer who mentioned Raph Koster's book A Theory of Fun for Game Design. I haven't read it myself so I decided to do a bit of swotting up. Grand Text Auto have a review with a bit of reader comment and a reply from Koster himself. Slashdot also have a review and Terranova has some good, detailed discussion between readers and Koster.

At the end of the day it sounds like it's not so interesting for academics or industry folk, but rather is an introduction for people who currently only play but want to start thinking about them more deeply.

Ian Bogost on The Colbert Report

2007-08-09T23:07:00.000+01:00

What a great combination!
I'm more of a Daily Show fan myself, but it's great to see Serious Games getting air-time.

Minesweeper: The Movie

2007-08-07T17:33:00.000+01:00

Commander: "Why are you here soldier?"

Officer: "I'm here because I'm bored!"

So much for the Tetris Defence

Killer Whales Killer App: Games

2007-07-31T00:23:00.000+01:00

The BBC report some interesting observations about progression in play of the dolphin family, of which killer whales belong,

Most mammals seem to enjoy play - but dolphins seem to like making their games as challenging as possible. A killer whale calf learned the trick of luring gulls to the surface of the water with fish. When the gulls landed on the water, the killer whale would then attempt to capture them in her mouth, without killing them.

Once she mastered this skill, she made the task more challenging for herself: instead of waiting for the gulls to land on the water, she tried to capture the gulls on their descent when they were more than a metre above the water surface.

She failed many times but kept going until she got good at it. More often than not, it was the naive juvenile gulls that were caught and subsequently tossed around. The next difficulty level entailed trying to catch the more clued-up, older gulls. As with human children, the activity itself, not just the outcome, has to be fun.

Life at Rockstar

2007-07-26T17:16:00.000+01:00

An ex-Rockstar employee has written a fairly long account of his time at the company.
It's a good read, with some insights about the culture there that you might not have expected.

Draughts Cracked

2007-07-19T23:58:00.000+01:00

The BBC has an article about a Canadian Artificial Intelligence team who have compiled a complete database of perfect draught moves which cannot be beaten.

Tesla Coil Music

2007-07-16T01:47:00.000+01:00

Featuring music from Mario and Tetris, apparently.

Animal Play

2007-07-14T15:48:00.000+01:00

Aw, a cute otter playing with a ball :-)

Younnat - Wheel Experience

2007-07-12T13:20:00.000+01:00

There's something really appealing about music made with video game controllers.
The driving gloves are a nice touch too.

Avatar Machine

2007-06-25T10:44:00.000+01:00

The Avatar Machine is a project to bring 3rd person gaming aesthetic into the real world.

$40 Billion Industry

2007-06-24T20:44:00.000+01:00

Ars Technica has an article about Pricewaterhousecoopers latest Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report for 2007 - 2011, in which the consulting firm expects the computer games industry to rise from today's $37.5 billion to $48.9 billion in the next 4 years.

Spectrum games on vinyl

2007-06-19T18:01:00.000+01:00

Back in the day when computer programs were encoded with audio on tape, some bands released records with games on their B-sides.

Who would perpetrate such a monstrous hybrid?

Inner City Unit
Pete Shelly
The Thompson Twins
Chris Sievey from The Freshies
Shakin' Stevens
The Stranglers
Urusei Yatsura
Information Society
Isao Tomita
Carter USM
Papa Dance
Atomic Robo Kid

Cheesy 80's pop + Spectrum code + vinyl = retro heaven!

Now if that's not the epitome of geek chic I don't know what is.

Ludic Reality: a construct for analysing meaning-mapping and epistemology in play

2007-06-17T20:23:00.000+01:00

I recently came across a paper by Dan Pinchbeck called Ludic Reality: a construct for analysing meaning-mapping and epistemology in play which is presumably part of the author's PhD in which he cites Dovey and Kennedy's discussion of Turner in their book Game Cultures:

"His concept of rituals as liminal spaces, that is, transformative spaces that suspend normal social rules, constraints and affordances, has been co-opted by games theorists to describe the extra-daily structure of play (Dovey & Kennedy 2006, Flynt 2006, Pinchbeck 2006). Dovey & Kennedy draw attention to Turner’s crucial distinction between the liminal and the liminoid, that “the liminoid... is a commodity, which one selects and pays for [rather] than the liminal, which elicits loyalty and is bound up with one’s membership or desired membership in some highly corporate group. One works at the liminal, one plays with the liminoid.” (Turner 1982: 55)."

p. 5

Here are my notes from the whole paper:

Pinchbeck proposes an approach to analysing FPS game content based on the phenomenological embodiment of player in the transitional object of a 'Ludic Reality'. He proposes a way to reconcile Juul's "real rules and fictional worlds" by viewing the 'reality' of the game to be constituted by the relation between a schema or mental set of rules for being-in-the-world and the player's embodied, meaningful experiences in that world. Furthermore, these rules become progressively more constraining as the player advances through the narrative of the game, thereby focussing the sense of immersion.

Four "homodiegetic devices" are presented as examples of ways in which the ludic reality is maintained.

1) Drama is presented as a cybernetic process of reduction to control temporal flow and focus player attention.
2) The world of the game is considered as structural limitation of affordances available to the player, as a liminoid domain in which schema from actual reality can be rewritten, and also as a space by which the temporal dimension becomes meaningful though virtually physical space.
3) NPCs or AI agents are devices which construct the impression of a world with fewer limitations for the player than really exist. Actions which the player expects as reasonable but which are unavailable are delegated to NPC agents. They additionally serve to position the player inside a world with the illusion of temporal and dramatic dimensions existing beyond the extent of the player's sessions.
4) Player avatars themselves often exhibit cyborg or other unusual qualities which function to limit what we might expect to be reasonable actions for them to take. Furthermore they are often embroiled in mysterious scenarios which force the player to construct meaning local to the ludic reality, thus putting further constraints on what they might consider reasonable. This reduction in affordances results in a vessel into which the player can project.

Each of these devices operates within the system of the game rather as content, but also serves to structure the form of the player's experiences.

Reference:

Pinchbeck, Dan. Ludic Reality: a construct for analysing meaning-mapping and epistemology in play. (University of Portsmouth: 13 February 2007) <http://www.danpinchbeck.co.uk/ludicreality.pdf> (Last accessed 14th June 2007)

Gender Stereotypes in Game Studies

2007-06-16T13:59:00.000+01:00

Crikey!

I've just been doing a literature review for my dissertation and came across a quotation that stopped me in my tracks,

"Murray's vision of holodeck-like video stories implies stories that would also appeal to our active social skills and social emotions, like establishing friendship, exerting care, feeling jealousy, falling in love, and so on. Such stories would be more attractive to women, and the success of the dollhouse game The Sims shows the market potentials for games that take some steps toward modelling the nonaggressive social world." (1)

I take it Torben won't be coming to the next Women in Games conference then.

(1) Grodal, Torben. "Stories for Eye, Ear, and Muscles", in Wolf, Mark J. P. & Perron, Bernard (eds.) The Video Game Theory Reader. (New York and London: Routledge, 2003), p. 151.

Poker Big Blind

2007-06-16T01:58:00.000+01:00

"Erik has a very special handicap, he is blind. It was on Friday the 8th of June that Erik won the no limit texas hold'em tournament 'Cosmo monthly final' with a total prize pool of $140 000."

Masters Thesis: Sex Games

2007-06-16T00:54:00.000+01:00

Jennifer Chowdhury presented her Masters thesis in Interactive Telecommunications at New York University wearing her underwear.

The project is called Intimate Controllers and Wired have an article about it.

The prototype is very proto but I could imagine lots of potential for the principle, in a similar way that the Wii has the potential for innovative, fun games. This isn't without precedent though, it reminds me of the Rez Trance Vibrator.

See also Talk2Me.

Here's Jennifer presenting the project at SXSW.

9 Year Old Professional Gamer

2007-06-08T00:39:00.000+01:00

The New York Times has an article about probably the worlds youngest professional gamer, Victor M. De Leon III, A.K.A. Lil’ Poison.

"Victor’s aptitude for video games surfaced at age 2, as he begin mimicking his father’s play."

"'He kind of passed me when he was 4,' Mr. De Leon said."

"At age 5, he entered the Major League Games and ranked in its top 64 players internationally. By the time he was 7, Victor competed in Chicago against more than 550 contestants, placing second — behind Uncle Gabriel."

"Besides prizes and product endorsements, Victor has a deal worth about $20,000 annually, plus expenses for trips to tournaments, from his sponsor, 1UP Network, a division of Ziff Davis Game Group, owners of gamer magazines and Web sites. Mr. De Leon declined to specify how much his son has accumulated, but said that it was almost enough to cover a private college education."

Wow! Check out the article, he sounds like a well adjusted kid too.

Urban art

2007-06-06T13:36:00.001+01:00

Ok, so this doesn't really have anything to do with games, but could we agree that it's a playful art project?

City / Social Networking

2007-06-06T03:58:00.000+01:00

A couple of my friends and ex-Rockstar colleagues have a kind of social networking concept that involves physically 'tagging' locations in the actual world and projecting that back onto Google Maps along with user comments on the locations.

This movie's mostly in German, but Mike speaks in (American) English to explain what it's all about,

I notice that Bristol's not on the map yet...

Literacy And New Media

2007-06-05T18:22:00.000+01:00

I just wanted to bring to your attention an interesting discussion going on over at a friend's blog. It all started out as something of a lament about the decline of second hand book stores but is now dealing with things like literacy and gaming. All the action's in the comments. Read on and get involved by posting over there.

Here are some excerpts by a variety of authors:

"this is not about print versus internet, but about serious intellectual engagement with literature by a culture versus superficial engangement with literature, or no engagement at all. This is orthogonal to print versus internet, at least insofar as those media are equally hospitable to the sorts of texts that drive literary culture (though I am not sure that they are, to put it mildly)."

"Bookstores are not closing down because people are starting to read books online. No one I know reads books online. They are closing because people are simply reading less, there is a decay in our literary culture."

"YouTube most clearly indicates the new, and in my view inevitable, trend away from writing back towards an oral/visual culture."

"One further thing to add about the decline of the local bookstore and the rise of the internet is the phenomenon of Amazon, of course. The internet has not only made many industries virtual, it has also enabled an incredible centralisation that has destroyed local business cultures of many different kinds."

"Some random thoughts of some values of long prose: the massive and detailed role of the imagination in interacting with long textual works (as an aside, this is also why avant garde music has always been better than mainstream music, but that is a rant for another time), the inherent suitability of text to building an argument, the way engaging with complex texts better enables us to communicate with one another, the brand of sheer aesthetic joy that can only be produced by an encyclopaedic novel"

The Acoustic Ecology of the First-Person Shooter

2007-06-04T15:54:00.000+01:00

I've just come across a PhD thesis by Mark Grimshaw of the University of Waikato, New Zealand, which deals with audio in video games, entitled The Acoustic Ecology of the First-Person Shooter.

Interesting because audio tends to get overlooked in favour of visual spectacle, but also interesting for me from a phenomenological perspective of considering the range of sense engaged during game play.

In other news, Australasia really looks like it's becoming a hotbed of game studies.

Tetris Effect

2007-06-04T13:36:00.000+01:00

I mentioned that I'd written an essay recently which touched on violence and videogames. Well Terranova has a short piece on how repetition can change the way we see the world, which is very much like the Tetris Effect I spoke about in my piece.

The rewards for pro-gamers were far better than those available to pro-tennis players

2007-06-03T13:03:00.000+01:00

An article from the BBC last year about David Kinnarid of the 4 Kings professional gaming clan.

Interesting because he was a pro tennis player before he quit to become a pro gamer.

"The excellent hand-eye co-ordination that helped him to become a good tennis player would make him a better gamer too, he said."

"It requires the same sort of ideas as tennis," he said, "though the physical side is not as much you are still using your head."

Augmented reality gaming...

2007-05-30T23:27:00.000+01:00

This video was posted on the HP mscapers forum... It's meant to show the potential for location based technology. All very exciting and fun n'est-ce pas? Except I'm still a little dubious as to whether they'll really ever manage to get the real/virtual to merge quite as seemlessly as presented here. I'm also rather uncomfortable about the target audience for the clip, as I pointed out (perhaps a little too strongly!) on the forum.

Good to see the blog is still getting new posts! Hope everyone enjoys the summer break.

French tax cuts for "cultural" games

2007-05-27T00:22:00.000+01:00

I just came across an article on Wired about the tax cuts the French government wants to give game development studios. However, they have an interesting set of conditions which reminds me of Sutton-Smith's rhetorics of play, the discourse on high/low art and ludology vs. narratology,

Not all video-game makers will necessarily benefit from France's tax-break incentives, either. Only video games with "cultural content" will qualify.

"The games must have a narration of some kind and a scenario written in French with elements of adventure or simulation games," said Marc Herubel, an adviser to the culture ministry. He cited Fahrenheit and Missing as games that would have probably qualified for the tax break.

And among some of France's intellectual elite, such as professors of art theory and history, video games also have a long way to go before they are taken seriously, some say.

"Intellectuals in France who defend the traditional culture like the cinema, literature and music, etc., generally don't care about video games and say they have nothing to do with culture," said Frank Beau, a consultant and writer who specializes in new media and the video-game industry. "On the other end, the intelligent set who defend video games in France are usually involved in psychology and social sciences, and they tend to favor role-playing games. "

Videogames and violence

2007-05-26T21:07:00.000+01:00

Just a couple of days after I handed in an assignment for my other module (Researching New Media) which dealt with violence in video games, the topic hits the headlines again:

Joystiq ponders, "The Political Game: How old is too old for game blame?"

"When pundits, culture cops and massacre chasers espouse their theories about the forces that drive real-world killers, exactly how old does the perpetrator need to be before video games get a pass?
Based on recent events, that magic number is ... 30."

"It's bad enough that some critics will reflexively point the finger at video games when a 15-year-old commits a violent act. It's indefensible to blame games for the actions of a man in his mid-20's."

GamersWithJobs reckon games are "No Cause For Murder"

"The argument that games cause terrible acts of homicide implies that movies, music, or even other people can have the same power over anyone."

"Lasting, positive change will only come when we stop reaching for causes and start creating conditions that will support kids and teenagers who need it. We can’t make anyone put the pin back in the grenade, but by supporting active, caring people who want to help, we might be able to influence some of those fateful decisions before it gets that far."

./ Games is discussing whether "Games Are No Cause For Murder"

Zombies Attack San Francisco

2007-05-26T18:13:00.000+01:00

They just wanted to eat some brains.
Pictures and article.

Online Iraqi Hunt

2007-05-19T11:13:00.001+01:00

Domestic Tension, an installation featuring a live webcam, paintball gun and an Iraqi / American.

Is it a game or is it art?

The interview makes interesting reading.

DJ WiiJ

2007-05-19T11:02:00.000+01:00

Engadget has a short article about using the Wiimote as a DJ interface.

Guitar Hero

2007-05-19T10:44:00.000+01:00

The Guitar Zeros play music with two guitar hero controllers,

Women In Games

2007-04-24T13:53:00.000+01:00

I've begun posting my notes from WiG 07. More to follow shortly.

Flow and Seduction

2007-04-15T14:11:00.000+01:00

I've come across a blog post about a paper by Torill Mortensen called "Flow, Seduction and Mutual Pleasures". The post makes the paper sound really interesting, but I haven't had time to read the latter yet. Here are some quotes from the blog,

"Mortensen takes a look at Csikzentmihalyi's theories on flow and Baudrillard's theories on seduction as they may be applied to the pleasure players derive from online gaming."

"The flow experience ... is one of achievement, not interaction, an achievement that is rewarding in itself, not through the rewards from others."

"the quest element in gaming is only seductive when it is unresolved"

"Mortensen points out that players who derive their pleasure from mastery and control of the game - from being functional and productive - fit Csikzentmihalyi's theories on flow. On the other hand, players who value the social, interactive and uncertain nature of gaming fit Baudrillard's theories on seduction"

Flashmob: 5th April 2007 @ Victoria, London

2007-04-06T13:09:00.000+01:00

On Thursday, the 5th of April, a 4000 person strong flashmob occurred at Victoria train station in London. Sounds like great fun!

It's just like a real club when everyone cheers together! Or pehaps it's rather a simulacrum of a club. Or is it just playing at being a simulacrum of a club...?

I love the guy with the glowsticks!

FBI visit Second life!

2007-04-05T17:54:00.000+01:00

It seems it's not just academics who are visiting Linden Labs' Second Life. The FBI have reportedly visited casinos in the virtual world to assess their legality, given recent changes in online gambling laws in the States.

Someone on a gaming forum I frequent asked in disgust whether they'd be taxing people for moeny made in virtual worlds next... but I'd assume that if you are converting income in Linden Dollars into Real Life money then you should probably declare it in your accounts, but if you don't convert it then what?

Anyway - guess this is an example of people playing at gambling, but who may actually be gambling... if you get my drift ;)

Video games are bad III

2007-04-02T10:45:00.000+01:00

At first I thought this might be an April Fool's... but it looks like it is genuine. It's certainly the usual well-balanced fare you would expect from the Mail. Rather than try and analyse the cause of the 'problem' they take the usul lazy approach of using video games as a scapegoat. It could be argued that it's the increased fear of abduction, that tabloid journalism has done such a good job of instilling in parents, that means they don't let their kids play outside. The other problem with this is the implication that 'childhood' is some kind of sacrosanct period in a person's life; isn't the concept actually an invention of the 20th century... and limited to wealthy, developed countries?

Japanese Go prints

2007-03-30T12:46:00.000+01:00

Thought I'd also post a link to the site where I got the Go prints that I used in my presentation. It's a very poor website: frames, links opening in new windows, the quality of the images isn't always great... but there's plenty of info about the prints, the story behing them etc...

Wiimote

2007-03-29T22:14:00.000+01:00

During our meeting today we mentioned software which can read the Wii controller's data. I use DarwiinRemote on OSX and I guess you Windows people would use WiinRemote? Post a comment if you try it out or have a better suggestion.

Also mentioned was this sword-wielding, Wiimote contwolled wobot (or Wiibot if you will):

Baudrillard GTA Mashup

2007-03-23T20:30:00.000Z

Here's the footage of GTA dubbed with Baudrillard that Helen mentioned on Tuesday,

PS3 Cures Cancer, Alzheimer's, World Conflict, etc...

2007-03-23T20:15:00.000Z

Folding@Home is a distributed computing project from Stanford University using home computers all over the world to help research cures for cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's amongst others.
You can install it on your own computer, but it looks like PS3s are considerably more powerful and are revolutionising this project.

Burning Man

2007-03-17T15:24:00.000Z

A few years ago I went to a festival in the Nevada desert, called Burning Man.

I've just come across a paper entitled Burningman and the Ritual Aspects of Play which cites Huizinga and Turner. This paper appears to be a prelude to the author's PhD dissertation “Reckoning Ritual and Counterculture in The Burning Man Community: Communication, Ethnography and the Self in Reflexive Modernism." which also sounds very interesting.

I haven't read these yet but I'm going to leave them here as a bookmark for myself and any others who might be interested in reading it for me and commenting on their thoughts about it :)

Television -> Pong -> T-shirt

2007-03-14T19:00:00.000Z

While Jason Wilson has been rethinking the relationship between television and Pong, the crew at ThinkGeek have been rethinking the relationship between t-shirt and Pong.

Machinima

2007-03-14T00:31:00.000Z

I've just added a new link to The Machinima Archive (more of which can also be found at Select Parks on their Machinima section), and while I was doing that I also went and found the original Top Gear footage which was then made into machinima that I posted about earlier. That post now has both the original and the machinima interpretations so you can compare and contrast.

I really like the way the machinima one is shot, and the intro sequence is very nice in particular.

I also used to read Concerned a lot. I followed the whole run actually. It's a web comic made with Gary's Mod in Half Life 2 and is pretty funny if you've played the game. If not then I imagine it wouldn't be terribly interesting for you.

Super Columbine Massacre RPG!

2007-03-13T16:23:00.000Z

"If anything, the constant cycle of playing the game versus thinking about playing the game - the association, then dissociation - helped to sharpen the line between game and reality, not blur it."

Gamasutra are running an article about Super Columbine Massacre RPG!. You might have heard of this game as it's been quite controversial. The article reviews the reaction from press, developers and players and discussing serious games in general and why the industry, academia and government should be supporting them.

It's a good read.

Game Focus

2007-03-12T23:45:00.000Z

A good friend of mine and ex-Rockstar colleague, Thad Frogley, has written up his notes from the recent Game Focus Germany event in Hannover.

There's a movie which features footage of another friend of mine, Babsi Lippe.
Don't worry, there's only a little bit of German at the start and end:

In the text, Thad covers amongst others, Babsi's talk about gender, games and Japan, and Richard Bartle's talk about games, art and culture.

Nice.

Music and Games

2007-03-11T02:00:00.000Z

After the last Mario flute / beatbox extravaganza, I offer you "Super Mario Medley",

Baudrillard's Reality

2007-03-10T15:30:00.000Z

On Tuesday, the 6th of March, Jean Baudrillard, the famous contemporary French philosopher, died.
Terranova has a discussion about reality and hyper-reality in his memory.

Homebrew Games

2007-03-07T18:37:00.000Z

An article from December 2006 discussing Microsoft's XNA Game Studio Express project with which home, amateur developers can make their own XBox Live games.

Console manufacturers normally keep a stranglehold on the games that are developed on "their" machines, and also because they always have final say over whether a professionally finished game can even be released to market. This case is particularly interesting because of the reference to YouTube in this quote,

"It is about sharing games and is envisioned as a YouTube for games," said Andrew Sithers, the academic lead at Microsoft UK.

Perhaps they've finally realised that there are ways to make money from developers without maintaining such a strong grip on authorisation: allow anyone to develop, but ensure that the means of distribution (which they own) still directs revenue to the publisher. I'm still sceptical about how ideologically close their implemention will be to YouTube community model, and I imagine there will be restrictions to what is made available. There are regulatory legal concerns with allowing the public to release content through a commercial channel, as the commercial entity then becomes responsible for that content.

On the other hand it sounds like fun and Microsoft game development tools are generally excellent. I'd be interested in buying an XBox 360 (and a PC to develop on). One concern that I have which is shared by other industry people is with getting new people into the industry. Making games now is much more complicated than when I was a kid in the 80's. You turned the machine on and it just begged to be programmed. You had everything you needed to make games on your own. There wasn't really any difference between amateur and professional developers. My concern is that because there's no imperative for kids to make their own games that will negatively affect potential industry recruits. On the other hand, there's a much greater number of computer owners and users now, we have internet access, the games industry is mainstream, etc.

Swings and roundabouts.

Interdisciplinary game studies

2007-03-07T18:25:00.000Z

"The researcher needs to get online and get her hands dirty interacting with 733t d00ds forthwith"

I've just been reading a thought-provoking article by Dmitri Williams about interdisciplinarity (or the lack thereof) in game studies with regards to humanities and social science research, Bridging the methodological divide in game research

Lego MMO

2007-03-06T13:04:00.000Z

NetDevil and Lego have announced that a Massively Multiplayer Online game is in the works.

Imagine a combination of Lego Racers/Starwars and Second Life. I can think of a couple of games researchers who might be interested in that.

In the mean time, I recently heard about people playing WoW for free on pirate servers such as MaNGOS.

Video games are bad II

2007-03-04T11:23:00.000Z

I shouldn't think that BSM have an anti-gaming agenda, so these results are interesting - though I'd question the accuracy of their survey, given the narrow and targeted sample group. Still, perhaps this is an example of the idea of play as having no consequences being carried over into everyday life? Perhaps simulation games are problematic because they're close enough to reality, whilst at the same time allowing you to do things without consequences, or that you wouldn't normally be able to do?

Gamers in Society

2007-02-28T17:39:00.000Z

There's a really interesting conference coming up soon (17-18 April) in Finland called Gamers in Society:

"The two-day event consists of themed sessions that discuss the social and cultural aspects of gaming"

Unfortunately it's immediately before the Women in Games conference (19-21 April) which makes it pretty inconvenient. Doh!

Here's the brief anyway,

"The social aspects of digital gaming are gaining increasing attention by academics, game developers and media alike. Popular controversy on the supposedly detrimental effects of games are countered by growing attention to the social value and cultural significance that contemporary games present to their players. New research is probing the precise roles games and playing occupy in the lives of various groups and individuals, producing interesting data about the multiple domains of life within information technology saturated societies. Simultaneously this kind of socio-cultural studies of game players require novel approaches into existing theories and methodologies in human sciences, informed by dialogue within the emerging field of game studies."

The Call For Papers has now closed, but this should give you an idea about the kind of material likely to be presented:

"The list of possible presentation topics includes, but is not limited to:

ethnographic studies of particular groups of game players

studies about social networks or communities created around, or within games

research into the social roles and dynamics within such game communities

inquiries into the everyday uses and social significance of games

studies into issues related with status, value and social norms that govern the position of games and gamers within the wider context of contemporary society

demographic studies mapping the time, money or other investments into games by various parts of the population
studies discussing the concept of game culture, or applying cultural and social approach into game studies"

When does a game stop being fun?

2007-02-28T12:39:00.000Z

I thought this piece on the BBC technology news site was rather interesting. It's clear that there comes a point when unlocking bonuses in games stops being fun and becomes a chore. With some of the MMORPGS this has led to people being paid to play the game to level up a character... so the game stops being a game and becomes a - probably rather tedious - job. But in this particular case I'm wondering how you'd describe the activity taking place?

In a sense the creation of the machine that presses the buttons is a form of play... but if we take that out of the equation and assume that there are people who may actually be doing this manually (i.e. starting a game, quitting then restarting etc.) then what are they doing? It's not work, but nor is it play... so what is it?

WoW Birthday cake

2007-02-28T00:05:00.000Z

A very understanding and creative girlfriend of a World of Warcraft player has made him a really cool themed birthday cake.

Greatest Sex Symbol

2007-02-24T23:44:00.000Z

I just watched a programme on channel 4 about the top 100 sex symbols in film.
Not only did "Lara Croft" come in at number 6, but Angelina Jolie, who hit the big time playing Lara in 2001, came in at number 1.
Regardless of what you think about these results, it certainly says something about media and contemporary culture.

For further discussion, see this paper.

CSS Modifications

2007-02-24T18:08:00.000Z

I've been editing the CSS for this website, stretched the main panel where the posts go (because it suits my 1024x768 12" PowerBook), and added a search box on the right.

Let me know if this is inconvenient for any of you viewing this on a small screen.

Video Game Advocacy

2007-02-23T13:12:00.000Z

Gamasutra is running a feature on Doug Lowenstein's swan song speech for the Entertainment Software Association at the D.I.C.E. summit, in which he criticises game developers for not defending their creative rights.

Personally I think this comment from one of the conference delegates hits the nail on the head,

"While censorship and game content have long been recurring discussions, I see them merely as a distraction to a larger issue. The issue is for game developers to take more control over how their work reaches the public. For two decades, the game development community has continued to allow proprietary hardware manufacturers to dictate the marketplace. The history of this transformation could fill a book. But the fact is that the circumstances that made this arrangement so necessary and successful no longer exist. Today interactive content is far more important than the hardware. But the games industry has continued to allow Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony to call the shots.

The game business is always looking for parallels to Hollywood. As frequently as possible it is pointed out that the video game business grosses more money than Hollywood. But Hollywood never would have become Hollywood if the manufacturers of movie projectors took 40% of the movie business’ revenue. It sounds silly, but there is your parallel. Even sillier, imagine movie projector manufacturers dictated what could be shown on their projectors. That’s censorship!

Anyone can make a video or movie that is easily disseminated to the general public. Any musician can create content for everyone to hear. Certainly writers have no trouble reaching their audience. But the most talented artists in the world have been divided and conquered by a few hardware manufacturers.

Even more important to the development community than their fight against censorship should be the fight to distribute their work on an open platform; a platform that allows developers to be rewarded for their effort, and not destroyed for their failures. This is a realistic goal that everyone in the game development community should be working towards.

-Eli Tomlinson, Gamix"