"Remember what the dormouse said"

Public Broadcasting goes gaming

2008-06-30T22:06:00.002+02:00

And it's about freakin time too!

NRK the Norwegian Public Broadcasting company will be releasing a free computer game for kids this fall, called Superia.

Spiller.no writes that they want the game to give kids creative freedom to make videos, animations and drawings a.s.o., and this will then be shared on the childrens tv channel or something. I'm also presuming that content will be shared between players as well - will they be able to interact with one another in the game, you think?

Either way... I'm so so so so so happy that nrk is brave and innovative enough to explore this direction. I'll have to dig a little deeper. I was just about to close down for the night when I read about this - so excuse the rushed sentences.

The gameplay that spiller.no has posted doesn't really seem all that creative or adventurous, to be honest - but I'm sure the real fun's in there somewhere!!

It's apparently created by the BBC - hmmm.... - it must be Adventure Rock, right? I wonder if the lovely Mildly Diverting and Wonderland had their interactive hands on this at some point.

Lego is binary form

2008-06-30T20:49:00.003+02:00

... and therefore is inherently digital. I like that! Great short, sweet and lovely presentation on Lego by Roo Reynolds.

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Via Wonderland

World of Workcraft

2008-06-26T22:02:00.002+02:00

I've been unbelievably slack on inspiration lately - but my fingers start itching when wonderful people like Fredrik, send me films like this -

World of Workcraft
(sorry - couldn't get the embed code to work and I can't figure out why)

Expect more soon. I've got like a dozen half-written posts ready to get published! I've just been out of poof lately!

Alice

2008-06-01T00:41:00.003+02:00

Some day I will reveal my Alice in Wonderland fascination here - but for now I give you this spectacular machinima by Jovial Productions. I mean - by golly! It's made with The Sims - how? - I honestly don't understand it! I've always liked Marilyn Manson's version of Sweet Dreams, as well - so this was just a win win for me! I love it!

Machinima, copyright and schools

2008-05-29T20:56:00.004+02:00

I had an interesting phone conversation the other day.

There's an organisation that promotes art to schools here in Norway, Kunst i Skolen. It's completely new to me, but it's existed since 1948 (way to go Norway!). So I'm still kinda dazed about this - but from what I can gather, they have these travelling exhibitions for schools (and I think members - although, I'm not sure if the schools need to be members). They've got loads of great stuff to offer, including CD-roms of collections and art for teaching purposes.

So why am I getting into this?

I was asked on Tuesday if I could put together a DVD of some Machinima films and I also offered to write a little summary of what machinima is. Now - ofcourse I'm having difficulty. Since they're an official organisation they need all the copyright details to be in order - and I'm struggling. The game companies certainly have come around the last couple of years - but the music industry - hell no. So when trying to present an art that's all about reproduction of media - fan art - remediation - or whatever we're calling it these day - what to do?

It's frustrating, and in my opinion needless, ridiculous and depriving so many of some great art. But I take comfort that they can be found online - which is just another rant waiting to burst out of me soon - but another time.

Anyhoo - I'm in desperate need of machinima with copyright issues in order. I have to play catch-up on my machinima copyright laws, but if memory serves me right Blizzard and Microsoft are fair - leaving it up to the artist as long as they don't make any money off it. I'm unsure about The Sims, though, but I'm thinking they'll be alright. What about Take 2?

Please let me know if you have any good ideas and machinima to offer.

I have a time limit on this that's insane - I basically need to send this in the post on Monday. But how could I refuse? Machinima in schools? Are you kidding me?! I love it!

The Console Wars

2008-05-03T12:00:00.000+02:00

Virtual Worlds stuff

2008-04-13T19:54:00.004+02:00

Just a little list of observations and things on my 'to read' list. I don't know why - but I've been so incredibly unfocused lately. I've actually been very social this weekend - which has been lovely but I feel I'm lagging behind on my feedburning!

1) Finland's Game Research Lab has had what looks to be a really great conference/seminar (I'm sure someday I'll actually care what the difference is) - Breaking the Magic Circle. What really struck me first was Vili Lehdonvirta's contribution, Virtual Worlds Don't Exist. I was instantly sucked in yesterday but three pages in I was rudely interrupted - and look at me now - blogging instead of reading! Vili's one of those people who manages to see clearly and keep both his feet on the ground when it comes to virtual worlds studies - and I honestly can't wait to finish his paper. Because the dude's definitely on to something.

The abstract:

I argue that much of MMO-related scholarship is implicitly based on a dichotomous "real world vs. virtual world" model, which is heavily influenced by the "magic circle" concept in game studies. I show a number of shortcoming in this perspective and propose an alternative perspective based on Anselm Strauss's social worlds (Strauss, 1978). The alternative perspective unbundles users from the technological platform and places MMO-centered social worlds in context with other worlds like religion and workplace.

I think Virtual World Studies are growing up - and that suits me fine!

2) There are now more than 100 youth oriented virtual worlds live or in development. Look - Virtual Worlds Management has a list!

3) The virtual world VizWoz is launching a virtual cinema on April 18th, according to Virtual World News. I had a 15 minute test-run of the place and I pretty much hated it. But I'm not a teen and 15 minutes is never enough for true judgment.

I'm really tickled by the virtual world cinema concept. It's something I've wanted virtual worlds to get into for a while now. I've always thought that this would be the way for stupid licensing issues to disappear. But I wasn't too happy about the fact that I needed to register if I lived in the States or not while getting an account - I, of course, lied - we'll see if I can get away with it. I'm also eager to see the quality of the films they're going to screen.

I applaud the initiative.

4) Speaking of April 18th - Funcom is together with GameSpot offering to play PvP Age of Conan from April 18th to April 20th for 15,000 gamers. I'll be unwired in Gøteborg that weekend so I haven't bothered to have a look at how I can be a part of it. Yet another sign that Age of Conan won't be delayed again, I think! I wish them luck!

5) Have to read Raph Koster's "Is there such a thing as a casual online world?"

Machinima at BitFilm Festival

2008-04-13T18:01:00.004+02:00

The BitFilm Festival is coming up and I wanna go! It's an odd - although really cool festival. It opens on May 1st and lasts til May 8th in Stuttgart - and then there's a closing event in Hamburg from 10th til 12th of July.

I wanna go for the machinima screenings on May 5th and May 6th - although the whole week looks like pure joy. I'm trying to come up with alternatives of people willing to pay me to go - any ideas anyone?

I'm having a hard time figuring out the site however. I can't seem to get my hands on which Machinima films are nominated but maybe that's the intention. According to the buzz of the blogs I follow, I now know of three.

1) Among Fables and Men - Dopefish

Goarr! Isn't this amazing. Here's an interview with him (Eddo Stern?) at Networked Performance.

Many of these videos represent elements of gamer culture that are still “officially” kept out of the game world — sex, drugs, real violence, death, etc. — but fan-based machinima, and forums postings become the spaces where these aspects of the gaming culture find an outlet, their expression in-game is repressed by the game companies censorship - they offer a glimpse into the subculture of the subculture.

2) I'm So Sick - Baron Soosdon

3) The Ballad of the Sex Junkie - Olibith

All excellent nominations. Coincidence that they're all Warcraft Movies?

BitFilm has created a virtual city, Bitropolis in Twinity.

The Bitropolis city centre consists of a cinema, a gallery, a bar and a night club. Create your avatar, enjoy cinema screenings, meet other film makers and film fans.

I've applied for access - but haven't received a beta account yet. I wonder if I might get in touch with Singapore crab dinner friend Jeremy Snyder and see if he can pull some strings. Because I think it's excellent that the festival has created a virtual city - that's the direction virtuality should be going in my opinion - it's a shame that there's not more instant access though.

So I wanna go wanna go wanna go! I've started my own paper on machinima - but so far it's just three pages of me rambling trying to figure out what it is I really want to say - I'm pleased that I've at least started, though, it took me long enough. I'm missing my books, my old computer and all the papers I've printed out.

Norwegian folkdance in AoC

2008-04-07T19:35:00.004+02:00

Well...I guess there's just no doubt that Age of Conan is going to be released on schedule - May 20th - because Funcom is sneaking in more and more little peaks to the press. I feel like a day doesn't pass by without there being something in the news about Age of Conan. Funcom is notorious for being super duper freakishly paranoid secretive, so they wouldn't start releasing stuff unless they knew they were ready.

The funny thing is that I really thought I was bored with it all now. I was very adamant in my opinion that teasing the fans for sooooooo long would slap them in the face because they would just get bored and annoyed by all the delays. I was wrong.

Just look at this - they're including Hallingdans. It's a Norwegian folk dance. I'm so impressed. My overly national romantic heart has officially melted. Video bellow is in Norwegian from Aftenposten.no, where you can distinctly hear that the movement director (?) for Age of Conan, who came up with this great idea, is from my neck of the wood - of course he's a Bergenser!

It looks like Halling is making a major come-back this year as the dance group Frikar won the judge's hearts on Norways Got Talent. Incidently it's one of Frikar who's doing the dancing for Conan as well.

I'm excited now. I just might get over the testosterone overload feeling I have against Age of Conan and go out and buy it! I adore details like this!

I wouldn't have noticed this if it wasn't for Nina's twittering, so thanks!

49% Casual Gamers play everyday

2008-04-02T19:41:00.003+02:00

Chris Bateman's got some interesting results from a survey they've done for a new player model, with 1040 responses.

Of those who classify themselves as casual gamers 49% play every day! Sounds like a statistic Jesper Juul would be interested in.

Also only 1.25% enjoy games without stories. I think that's interesting.

We've received 1,040 responses to the survey, of which 55% (576) are from North America, 30% (317) are from Western Europe or the UK, 5% (52) are from Australasia, and a few responses from everywhere else in the world besides.

The majority of respondents play games every day (66%), with many of the others playing every week (26%). Interestingly, of those that self-identified as "Hardcore", 81% play every day, and of those that self-identified as "Casual", 49% play every day. It seems that even people who see themselves as a Casual player are still playing amazingly often.

The most popular approach is to play alone (40%), with just a few playing single player games with pad passing or some similar group play (7%). The remaining players all prefer some kind of multiplayer format, whether in the same room (17%) or over the internet (19%, of which 5% is team or clan play), with the remaining 16% preferring virtual worlds and MMORPGs.

On the subject of game stories, there is overwhelming consensus, with 93% saying either that stories are very important to their enjoyment of videogames (36%) or that stories help them enjoy videogames (57%). A mere 5% say stories are not important, and just 1.25% say they prefer videogames without stories. Clearly, story occupies a vital space in the modern world of videogames – gamers love stories!

Cory Ondrejka's fabulous slideshow

2008-03-26T21:23:00.003+01:00

Cory Ondrejka explains the complexities of Virtual Worlds so wonderfully in this slideshow. It's selfexplanatory - simple - informative - and extremely tidy.

This is the third slideshare I've seen today - and they're all great. I sometimes wonder if I have it in me to focus entirely on someone speaking without a beautiful slideshow. Can I learn without visual stimulation anymore?

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So you've lost a ring ey?

2008-03-16T10:34:00.004+01:00

ARG-guru Jane McGonigal has designed a new game for the 2008 Olympics, The Lost Ring.

At the moment it seems like a sort of collective-blogging/web 2.0-story-game.
We're introduced to six characters. Ariadne, Markus, Noriko, MeiHui, Diego and Lucie. They all woke up in some form of labrynth with amnesia, some funky white fitness suit, white goggle that you can't see through - blindfold and a funky tattoo on their arm which reads: Find the lost Ring in Esperanto.

I'm quite pleased that this is truly international. French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese and I think Japanese (I can't be bothered to look up right now). I also like the way they use many different types and brands of web 2.0 media. I'm astonished by how much work they've put into it and how thorough they've been. I think Jane McGonigol's genious is clearly evident.

So these six characters are unified by the same problem. They've also realised that their bodies are well in tune, like olympic champions, which made me wince. Reading about it in blog form made me sort of urghy - it just sounds so lame.

I guess the goal of the game is to figure out the big mystery. Enter the professor Eli Hunt who coincidently has some podcasts on the ancient mysteries of the Olympic Games. I really enjoyed listening to his podcasts and I found myself wishing them to be non-fictional. I honestly felt like I was learning something new about the Olympic past and listening to a very learned archeology geek. Here's one about the lost sport of Olympia.

This was really a great way to get someone like me hooked. After all, we have become an information society - we truly do want to learn more and we love going on information safari's on the net. There's a New York Times article about this somewhere - a new study of the brain that explained why we like it so much - but I can't seem to find it at the moment. Eitherway - these podcasts are what got me hooked.

That said - I'm not sure I get what I'm supposed to be doing in this game. I don't really feel compelled to do anything except keep reading and watching and listening as this bunch figures things out. But maybe that will change in the course of time?

I'm not a language buff so I'm keeping in tune to the game through Ariadne - and unfortunately she's no LonelyGirl15. Seriously, it needed a semi-bad actress before I truly understood what a great actress LonelyGirl was. It's really hard to believe her and her charm is very pressured. But I'm sure she'll grow on me and her acting will probably become better. But right now I just found it a tad annoying.

But I'm hooked. And at some point I need to figure out what the hell this is. It's described as a strange sectret portal site - but they've managed to get loads of information from it - but I can't seem to figure it out.

For now, though, I need to find a job from 1st of May - or at least some form of income - if anyone knows of anything let me know!

Protesting in a virtual world

2008-03-11T21:53:00.004+01:00

Joseph DeLappe is an active artist protesting the war in Iraq.

On March 20th, the date of the US invasion of Iraq, DeLappe will enter America's Army, peacefully.

America's Army is an MMORPG designed by the US military which also functions as an active reqruiter. for the army.

He'll be using the login name "dead-in-Iraq" and well...I'm almost tempted to download America's Army to witness the action. But quite honestly, I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Would I be supporting America's Army or would I be supporting Joseph DeLappe?

"As of 1/17/08, I have input 3745 names. I intend to keep doing so until the end of this war. As of 1/17/08 there have been 3929 American service persons killed in Iraq" - Networked Performance

So he'll be manually(!) writing the name, age, service branch and date of death of each service person who has died to date in Iraq.

Does it all sound familiar? Well, it seems he started dead-in-iraq in 2006. It kinda gives you a perspective on matters when an artist repeats his protest 3 years in a row. That's interesting.

I have to admit I'm feeling a tad sorry for the poor MMORPG players - I mean what are they suppossed to do? Hmmm - maybe they should join him somehow? Maybe he should invite them to. It would be lovely if someone documented the discussions this sparked in-world. It seems he doesn't engage in any social conversation...well...who could blame him with 3745 US soldiers to memorialise.

It certainly made an impression on me. I think it would be cool if they could stream the protest but I worry about the privacy rights of the players.

My women's day thank you

2008-03-08T07:15:00.009+01:00

Since we've become such a connected society, I've noticed that my idols are more local. They're reachable, and I may even have talked to them. Maybe its my age, but my idols aren't billionaires (well - at least I don't think they are) or global popstars - instead my idols are nearby, within my reach and guess what? They're all women! I thought about this a few months ago and thought I'd save writing about it until this womens day. As my little tribute.
First off - by idol I mean a person that truly inspires me. It's a person I draw strength from. I don't want to be this person, I'm quite happy with who I am. But these people help me to strive for things I really want to do. I feel inspired when I'm around them or reading/hearing their work.

So as a tribute on womens day I'd like to say thank you to:

Jill Walker Rettberg-

- of course! Who didn't see that coming?!
Jill just seems to get it all right.
She's always giving lectures (although I've yet to experience one actually). She writes books like they're blogposts - or seems to at least. Look out for Digital Culture, Play, Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader due in May and Blogging in August. Jill's an excellent writer. She has that rare and wonderful ability to make things that are extremely difficult to understand, straight forward and even interesting. That's always a true sign of brilliance in my book.
Last year, when I was trying to do my own 'stuff' after mundane days at work - I drew so much inspiration from Jill. Reading her blog and keeping up with her work, played a little record in my head "Stop your wining and just do it!"

She's also just such a genuinely warm, nice and fun person! She and her husband are the kind of people you dream about inviting over for dinner!

Aleks Krotoski -

Aleks is a journalist, blogger and an academic all at the same time. I met her at the State of Play and actually uttered the words "I'm such a fan!" - it's hard to say those words without seeming like a complete nutbag!
Anyways, I love the way she's convinced The Guardian that all this social technology stuff is interesting news. She's brilliant at making things seem simple and she's a great question person. You know what I mean? Great at asking the right questions. And they're all such interesting questions, which reveal a smart mind at work with great thoughts about the future. Aleks knows what to ask.
She's also done some amazing research in Second Life and I'm keen to see what she does next.

Alice Taylor -

I'm not sure what to write about Alice except she's a brilliant blogger and she does some great work for the gaming industry! She's probably the most forward thinker on Public Broadcast Gaming - and omg - how can you not admire something like that! I've always admired her way of being such a gamer geek and keeping her femininity so out there.

To me the true heroins of today are the ones who dare to venture beyond the comforts of genderspecific roles and still be true to their nature. I love that. Way too often women have had to 'blend into' environments that aren't typical to their gender. And I absolutely adore these three women who are far from ashamed of being women, instead they embrace it and bring it with them on their professional quests. Yes - I do mean quest. Because it seems to me that these women love what they do and they love to learn more. They dive into subjects and are eager to learn more and they seem like they have such fun doing it. They're not afraid to share and all of three of them make it seem like fun being - sorry gals - but geeks, I guess. Excellent role models for all girls and women everywhere - I think!

Right - this list should be longer - and I have a few names up my sleeve, but alas - this should be published today!

I definitely want to send a big hug to my fellow chixors! Love and admire you all!

Huh - this is rather worrisome isn't it? All my role models are female gamers - huh. I'll see if I can remedy that by next year!

Things I'm going to

2008-03-05T18:57:00.004+01:00

Tomorrow I'm off to Gullstikken . It's kinda an award ceremony for the best computer games of the year, well...that's exactly what it is actually. From what I hear, its the best place to meet the whole Norwegian games industry in one place.

So I'm looking forward to seeing who's out there.

I'm also going to a free information meeting about Datalagringsdirektivet on Friday. It's about the EU directive of storage of personal information. I'm still quite confused about the whole thing, and I welcome a free meeting to inform me about what its all about.

Bow Street Runners

2008-02-17T11:09:00.005+01:00

Congrats to Channel 4's Public Broadcast Gaming initiative! And Alice Taylor!

I just tried Bow Street Runners and by golly it's amazing! I really enjoyed it! It's really good lookin' and even educational! Which seems to be the point of Public Broadcast Gaming - creating games that educate. For example - I didn't know gin had such a societal impact on London in the 18th century. I learned that just by clicking on a bottle - they called it Madame Geneva. So after the game episode I looked it up and listened to a BBC podcast on the subject - apparently it was a female craze. Really interesting!
The game is in unison with the Channel 4 series, City of Vice, which I ofcourse aim to see now that I've played the first episode of the game!

In the 1750s London’s perilous streets were run by armed gangs, corrupt night watchmen and thief takers. Then two Westminster magistrates, novelist Henry Fielding and his brother, John, obtained a grant from Parliament allowing them to bring some law and order to the crime-ridden boroughs of Central London.

Everything in the game is historically correct. Fielding startet the Bow Street Runners - policemenn in Covent Garden, which was completely run down. So you play a Bow Street Runner - you're the investigator. The sound effects are excellent, the picture, lucious and the point-and-click mechanism works really well. It pays to be curious and you really feel the atmosphere and time period. I'm really impressed. But at this point in my life I'm finding that what I think is really cool and fun, isn't always in coallition with 'the kids' - so who knows?! I wish them the best of luck!

Maybe NRKs next? They had a ski challenge game a while back, do you think they'll consider going into Public Broadcast Gaming as well - oh that would be fun! I wonder if they have an education policy? I know they have a cultural policy, but what about education?

Perhaps it will be discussed at the Computer Games As Learning conference on the 21st of april in Oslo? The conference is organised by ITU - IT-Research and Competence in Education and I'll definitely be there, probably wearing my journalism hat.
I find it so scary that I had never heard of them before! Has my head been stuck in the clouds or too far up my own ass? This has been happening to me constantly lately - there's so many organisations, networks, departments and government groups I didn't know existed before I became a journalist. It's fun to learn - but scary to realise how little I know...you know what I mean?

Anyway - Alice doesn't dissapoint - Aleks has a great interview at The Guardian.

Do I seem rushed? Well - I've just postponed all the work I was supposed to do this weekend to this sunday night - why? why do I do this to myself? So now I'm off to learn about .odf's vs. .oxml's.

Mauvais Rôle - excellent game animation film

2008-02-13T19:46:00.003+01:00

This is just gorgeous! Not machinima but animation short, although its focus is very true to the machinima spirit. The whole existential crisis of an avatar and the mash-up of computer game culture! It's really really great! Thanks Marianne for giving me a heads-up!

Age of Conan delayed - again

2008-01-21T09:00:00.000+01:00

According to Dagens It (ofcourse!) Funcom's Age of Conan is delayed, yet again to May 20th.

I worry that they're gun shy after the problems endured after the Anarchy Online release - but then again - maybe perfection upon release is the way to go. They've learned from their mistakes - but then again, I don't think perfection is completely possible before release. Is it?

While waiting, though, Massively did a great in-depth interview with Jørgen Tharaldsen (I can't believe he's not in Wikipedia - I'll have to sort that out in a sec)before Christmas, which is worth a look at. They go into the politics of rating, which I found really interesting! Akela Talamasca also shot this gameplay footage:

exploration_CD.mov

Second Life Machinima

2008-01-19T16:10:00.000+01:00

This has got to be one of the most beautiful machinima pieces I've ever seen. Yeah - you just need to see and we'll talk deconstruction later.

The Dumb Man by Sherwood Anderson

The Dumb Man from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

via Boing Boing

Using Game Design to "foster social change"

2008-01-17T08:58:00.000+01:00

The World Wide Workshop, an organisation commited to using the internet for educational purposes of youth and children in developing communities, has created a wonderful site called MyGLife.org, through it's Globaloria Project. It's still in Beta - so I haven't been able to test it yet - but just look at this:

MyGLife.org is comprised of an open architecture of educational, programmable websites and related wikis that offer more than 100 educational activities, simulations and tutorials to play, learn, explore and contribute new ideas online.

PLAY to Learn invites participants to play with an arcade of games, puzzles, creative tools and scientific simulations and to think about them critically as game developers. Donated and open source customized tutorials allow participants to tinker with the underlying game code and learn programming skills.

LEARN to Build features an extensive library of hand-picked, custom written and open source tutorials for learning Flash, HTML, Graphic Design, Wiki, Blogging and Project Development skills.

EXPLORE Web 2.0 Resources features links to recommended online resources and lists of suggested readings that will help participants.

CONTRIBUTE Knowledge and Support encourages participants to follow-up their learning by contributing works back to the site. Professional developers and organizations worldwide can also donate work and learn how to start MyGLife programs locally.

I'm thinking this is just as good for the old folks!

I mean - it's just so freakin beautiful! I know I get carried away with these things - but I truly can't help myself. Creating a site to teach users how to design and create their own games, give them the opportunity to collaborate and communicate with each other - AND - provide open-source games to play with?! That's just - beautiful!

And to even further boost my amazement- BBC's Culture Shock has an interview with a Ms Caperton:

She also said the site will particularly target students in Israel and the
Palestinian territories, in an effort to foster greater understanding between
them.

What an effort! I certainly wish them good luck and applaud them for such an amazingly creative effort and vision. Perhaps with the One Laptop Per Child project (Nicholas Negroponte's TED talk)... naw....I won't finish that sentence - just a tad too tacky and optimistic I think - hehe

I, journalist, again - in Oslo

2008-01-15T09:14:00.000+01:00

Well - by golly. I'm off to Oslo to work as a journalist for five months. Dagens It, were kind enough to offer me the position - and I instantly jumped at it! Just think of all the stuff I'm gonna learn! I'm quite pannicked about writing quickly in Norwegian for such a serious business oriented news organisation and I'm foreseeing a bunch of stress right away. But I think it'll be worth it! There's so much I want to learn about the IT industry in Norway, in particular the game development community - I'm hoping that what interests me, will be in unison with the paper.

It's all happening rather fast, however - so I feel like I'm stuck in some "We're not in Kansas anymore" whirlwind. I'm starting by covering a conference here at home, Digitale Hverdag where there's gonna be a lot of stuff on robots, which I'm all giddy about. Don't know why, I never really cared about robots that much - but now I do. They'll be talking about robots in the workforce which I think is quite interesting. I may have been asleep the last few years, but I haven't really heard that much ado about robots since the 80s (yes - I was VERY young then). It's my impression that it all became rather dystopic - robots taking away jobs a.s.o. So does this mean that we're warming to robots more? Have we entered an age of positive technology? I suppose we have, really - which I guess I've known - so why am I suprised that robots in the workforce have become a positive force of discussion?

Anyways - the conference out of the way and then I'm off to Oslo. I've got 2 weeks to get everything organised and I'm very very confused! Thankfully there are really really generous and gorgeous people out there! Upon arrival I'll be staying in DietroVetro's apartment, out February, when Kjartan will take over. I'm eternally gratefull to them both for letting me invade! I'm still on the look-out for a room from march through june - so please let me know if you know of something! But I've got a few places to look at when I arrive - hopefully one of them will work out.

I'm eager to start and I keep waking up in the morning with a new idea for an article.

Gamers connecting through common interests - the new market?

2008-01-11T08:31:00.000+01:00

According to Red Herring, game developer start-up, Outspark (site unavailable at writing moment) has managed to secure $11 million in funding from Tencent (a Chinese internet service company who's mission is "to use Internet-related technologies for the betterment of human life"), Altos Ventures (Silicon Valley venture capital firm) and DCM (another venture capital firm in Silicon Valley).

Apparently they're combining web 2.0 applications with casual games and focusing on revenue from the sales of virtual items - such as avatar clothing a.s.o. To me it all sounds very Habbo Hotel'ish, but why wouldn't new gaming companies focus on the Habbo model?

It seems they're using independently developed games and using them within they're community. As Justin Moresco writes:

"And with an office in Seoul, Korea, Outspark hopes to tap into the
much-lauded game developer pool in the country. Both its current games, Fiesta
and Secret of the Solstic, are licensed from Korean developers.
Altos Venture general partner Han Kim said Outspark will continue to source games from Korea and then “localize” them for the North American market."

I'm intrigued by the sourcing of gamedevelopers and the localizing efforts.

They've already registered one million users in the course of five months, which seems cautiously promising. I'm intrigued.

Venture Beat writes:

"Users get a single ID and use the same currency across all of Outspark’s games,
so they don’t need to sign up multiple times for the same services. The idea is
to encourage Outspark users to connect through common interests, not just
through the games they play together."

P.S. - practicing writing articles in a hectic work day and publishing quickly - for reasons I'll come back to soon. This was read about and reported in the course of 1 hour - constantly interrupted by other things. Me thinks me needs more practice - he he!

The art of McGee

2007-12-28T12:51:00.000+01:00

American McGee's in Shanghai developing Grimm with his company, Spicy Horse Games. And lucky for the world I live in, McGee's a blogger! He was quiet there for a while - but he's now frequently sharing his brilliant creations with us, his fans. One clue as to why I like McGee's work is to be found on his 'about' page:

His stated mission is

“to create a unified production method for story telling across the interactive and film industries” and of himself, he says, “I want to be the next Walt Disney, only a little more wicked.”

It's just so gutsy, ballsy and well...I'd say a realistic goal with such a creative mind as his. I like to think of him as one of the best storytellers in game art, so I think he's well on his way to achieving this status. I'm a big fan, although, I actually haven't played Bad Day LA yet. Like, Alice - I didn't think it was quality McGee stuff - but it seems it might just be. OooOOoo - looking forward to having my account filled up again after a really expensive Christmas!

Anyways - McGee has really started sharing on his blog and I definitely recommend it. I mean, just look at what he wrote under this picture I'm sharing with you now:

"Since my days at id Software I’ve been a fan of blood, gore, lava,
and guts. Back then we used to revel in “gibs”, laugh when imps were exploded
into meaty showers of goo, and thrill to the screams of space marines bathing in
lava. With “Grimm” I’m excited to once again be dealing in a fiction where blood
fountains and rivers of lava are prevalent."
- how adorable isn't that?!

Being recognised by a stranger

2007-12-18T08:30:00.000+01:00

So extremely weird standing at the bus stop freezing my butt off in the frost of the morning at 7 am and have somebody come up to me and ask "You work for BTV right?" - "Uhm - no." "But I'm sure I saw you there" - "Well, I was interviewed on that show MM a few weeks back". And then...well...all interest was lost. A disappointed "oh yeah" and then off they went again. The word 'machinima' wasn't uttered once. And it seems working for a tv station is much more rock starish than being a guest. So what's the point of being recognised if my message never came across?! At least the stranger could have remember games and film! Utterly disappointed!

Things to do when I get home from work

2007-12-17T08:52:00.000+01:00

Check out Howard Rheingold's talk "Co-Evolution of Technology, Media and Collective Action" - at the NMC Symposium on the Evolution of Communication.

Snoop in the e-grapevine as to what on earth is going on at Linden Labs. Corey Ondrejka leaves? Because of differences with Philip Rosedale? - oh my oh my! I feel like my juicy gossipy needs are bursting! It's funny - but I wonder if we all have a favorite of the two? I hadn't thought about it before now, but they're not very similar are they? And, well, I can't lie, I definitely have a favorite - do you? And what does this mean for Second Life? A Second Life without Cory? It just seems wrong somehow - but then again, who am I to have an opinion - I'm hardly ever there!

Check out the Second Metaverse Meetup - held by The Stanford Humanities lab. There's a video of Jamais Cascio's talk "The Metaverse -- what does it include, where is it going, and how will it change our lives?" - video here (I've actually sent this link to several people already - but not had the chance to check it out myself)

What's this Metaverse Meetup site I just sumbled upon while searching for links to the last point of 'to do' - something seems awfully familiar.

Eat the entire contents of the Christmas cookie box I just got at work

Start applying for work, even though I've found the perfect job for me (how often does that happen?), but they may need some more convincing - and I'll have to find more options in the meantime.
Finish doctorate proposal

Blog about EVERYTHING - I've been way way way too quiet lately! Feel like I'm about to burst!

And that's all the time I have for after-work planning - cause I actually DO have to do some work here before Christmas.