Below is a link to the website for FABLE, a game from Microsoft, where your actions change the way you look, the quests available and the in game NPC interactions.
http://www.lionhead.com/fabletlc/
Monday, June 30, 2008
Speaking of video game competitions...
Does anybody else beside me remember this movie? I so badly wanted to be this kid. But it is funny to read through this article and look at all the errors in the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_(film)
Here are some links to video reviews of the movie, both of which are amusing
http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/nostalgia-critic/34-nostalgia-critic/215-the-wizard
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33161.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_(film)
Here are some links to video reviews of the movie, both of which are amusing
http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/nostalgia-critic/34-nostalgia-critic/215-the-wizard
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/33161.html
Friday, June 27, 2008
Sharendipity Issues
SO, I had a fun and convoluted adventure with Sharendipity. I hoped that it would be an easy process, despite having messed up my hand late on Thursday, thinking I would need to only do a minimum of typing. Sadly (though for the wrong reasons), I was right...
To begin with, in general project terms, I'm a hater, in general of applications on Facebook. They just drive me crazy. I hate to use them. I have two on my profile, one (Scrabulous) because I got hooked before the whole system went superflue with them, and the other (Courses 2.0) to mimic a feature that they removed from Facebook. I went to the facebook link for Sharendipity, and it asked me to give it my information and other such frustrating stuff, so I just said no, like I always do. I just hated the idea of adding another app. From there, it was a trip to the Sharendipity main page.
Upon arrival, I saw that there, front and center, was an Asteroids "applet" to be played. I was pretty excited about this, and so I clicked on it, loading up the Java application (which looks EXACTLY the same as the initial Facebook screen), and telling my browser that I trusted the provider of it. Soon thereafter, star and a dialog box pop up on my screen, but in a bizarre location, blocking other data. I can't click on the dialog box. I can't even close the window. Eventually, I use the toolbar and close it from there, trying again.
Same problem. Again, a box of sorts opens up, in some sort of twillight between 'in front of' and 'behind' the windows that are in that area. I notice some words at the bottom of the window, but I can't catch enough of them before they are gone. Eventually, redoing the same process twice more, I'm able to collect what the words say: "Frame rate has fallen below the minimum rate for application".
I try another application ("Bloomshine") and have the exact same problem, sans starry sky screen. Again, it totally mucks up my desktop outside of the proper window, and opens up a dialog inviting my to Alpha Sharendipity, but doesn't let me select it. This time, my Firefox crashes. Ugh. As someone who truly hates putting applications on my Facebook, and is generally against "being viral" on Facebook (I HATE it when people invite me to apps), I just found the whole exercise frustrating.
To begin with, in general project terms, I'm a hater, in general of applications on Facebook. They just drive me crazy. I hate to use them. I have two on my profile, one (Scrabulous) because I got hooked before the whole system went superflue with them, and the other (Courses 2.0) to mimic a feature that they removed from Facebook. I went to the facebook link for Sharendipity, and it asked me to give it my information and other such frustrating stuff, so I just said no, like I always do. I just hated the idea of adding another app. From there, it was a trip to the Sharendipity main page.
Upon arrival, I saw that there, front and center, was an Asteroids "applet" to be played. I was pretty excited about this, and so I clicked on it, loading up the Java application (which looks EXACTLY the same as the initial Facebook screen), and telling my browser that I trusted the provider of it. Soon thereafter, star and a dialog box pop up on my screen, but in a bizarre location, blocking other data. I can't click on the dialog box. I can't even close the window. Eventually, I use the toolbar and close it from there, trying again.
Same problem. Again, a box of sorts opens up, in some sort of twillight between 'in front of' and 'behind' the windows that are in that area. I notice some words at the bottom of the window, but I can't catch enough of them before they are gone. Eventually, redoing the same process twice more, I'm able to collect what the words say: "Frame rate has fallen below the minimum rate for application".
I try another application ("Bloomshine") and have the exact same problem, sans starry sky screen. Again, it totally mucks up my desktop outside of the proper window, and opens up a dialog inviting my to Alpha Sharendipity, but doesn't let me select it. This time, my Firefox crashes. Ugh. As someone who truly hates putting applications on my Facebook, and is generally against "being viral" on Facebook (I HATE it when people invite me to apps), I just found the whole exercise frustrating.
Sharendipity-doo-dah day
I have to admit that I had a really difficult time using Sharendipity. I tried using some of the tutorials, but most of them were about behaviors and not specifically about getting started or where to begin. Also, I didn’t come into the program with an idea of what kind of game I wanted to make. I know that Greg advised against this. Maybe I should’ve made a game that involved listening! So overall I had a negative experience when I was trying to build a game. My game ended up being nothing special. It was a lot like some others I’ve seen with just an object that flies around and shoots things (it my case it was a little palm tree). Violence has permeated every game!
All that being said, I really did enjoy using Sharendipitty to play other people’s games. It made me really impressed that there are this many people out there who can program online games with ease. This was definitely my favorite part of the program. One thing that it solidified in my mind is that I am a game player, not a game maker, and there is a huge difference between playing a game and making a game. I spent a good amount of time playing “Death’s Door,” and also a version of Asteroids. Then I tried out the personalize option and played around with each game just a tad…although I was still having trouble making the games do what I wanted them to. Oh well. Such is life.
Judging by these two paragraphs, I had on one hand not very much fun with Sharendipity, but on the other a good time playing some simple games. I’m going to end by saying that the fun outweighed the frustration I initially encountered.
All that being said, I really did enjoy using Sharendipitty to play other people’s games. It made me really impressed that there are this many people out there who can program online games with ease. This was definitely my favorite part of the program. One thing that it solidified in my mind is that I am a game player, not a game maker, and there is a huge difference between playing a game and making a game. I spent a good amount of time playing “Death’s Door,” and also a version of Asteroids. Then I tried out the personalize option and played around with each game just a tad…although I was still having trouble making the games do what I wanted them to. Oh well. Such is life.
Judging by these two paragraphs, I had on one hand not very much fun with Sharendipity, but on the other a good time playing some simple games. I’m going to end by saying that the fun outweighed the frustration I initially encountered.
Nightmare on Share Street - Sharendipity- Marlon
http://apps.facebook.com/sharendipity/assets/1335/
Never has a link looked so sweet! This hand’s on assignment was one of the most gut-wrenching, difficult and frustrating experiences I’ve ever partaken in, in terms of the world of technology. With no former programming experience to speak of I found the interface extremely difficult to navigate and found myself time and again needing to go back to start over. Maybe it is the PC I am working on or the internet connection, but things seemed pretty buggy to me as I worked on this project. The screen would seizure from time to time as if the blinking frames had come to a lull before everything would shut down. I found myself gritting my teeth and turning red through much of the experience and would consider myself at least mildly tech savvy, proving, that perhaps, the program could be simplified. This program, in my opinion, is not ready for release to beginners like me, as the interface is so static that I nearly felt powerless in my controls.
The game I made is exceedingly simple and has no sort of scoring method. In fact, most of the objects don’t even explode on contact. Nonetheless, this Game, SuperNova, would make for a good flight simulator for people to learn how to control with the key pad. I started with the idea of creating a Hubble Space Telescope educational game, where one would have to photograph certain systems and stars and identify their place relative to the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. This, however, turned out to be much more difficult than expected, and what you see is what you get.
Just make sure to steer clear of the black holes. They were a nifty pickup for me, I’d argue, making each turn that much more treacherous. Perhaps, someday, when I find the interface and navigation table simpler, I might be able to finish my Hubble Space Telescope game. In the meantime, however, I can only integrate components that others have contributed, identifying the greatest advantage to this computer program—the sharing aspect and the world wide web.
Happy trails space adventurers!
Never has a link looked so sweet! This hand’s on assignment was one of the most gut-wrenching, difficult and frustrating experiences I’ve ever partaken in, in terms of the world of technology. With no former programming experience to speak of I found the interface extremely difficult to navigate and found myself time and again needing to go back to start over. Maybe it is the PC I am working on or the internet connection, but things seemed pretty buggy to me as I worked on this project. The screen would seizure from time to time as if the blinking frames had come to a lull before everything would shut down. I found myself gritting my teeth and turning red through much of the experience and would consider myself at least mildly tech savvy, proving, that perhaps, the program could be simplified. This program, in my opinion, is not ready for release to beginners like me, as the interface is so static that I nearly felt powerless in my controls.
The game I made is exceedingly simple and has no sort of scoring method. In fact, most of the objects don’t even explode on contact. Nonetheless, this Game, SuperNova, would make for a good flight simulator for people to learn how to control with the key pad. I started with the idea of creating a Hubble Space Telescope educational game, where one would have to photograph certain systems and stars and identify their place relative to the rest of the Milky Way galaxy. This, however, turned out to be much more difficult than expected, and what you see is what you get.
Just make sure to steer clear of the black holes. They were a nifty pickup for me, I’d argue, making each turn that much more treacherous. Perhaps, someday, when I find the interface and navigation table simpler, I might be able to finish my Hubble Space Telescope game. In the meantime, however, I can only integrate components that others have contributed, identifying the greatest advantage to this computer program—the sharing aspect and the world wide web.
Happy trails space adventurers!
Cross Video-Game marketing
This is just too on-point and amusing not to share:
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/06/world-of-warc-1.html
http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/06/world-of-warc-1.html
Pocket Monsters
In this chapter from Digital Play: The Interaction of Technology, Culture, and Marketing Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter take aim at the cultural capital and control fueled by the marketing industry and how it has been applied to the relatively new medium of video games. The authors start by providing a broad overview of the marketing apparatus in question and the potential power it has to shape the development and adoption of new product.
Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter then move into a discussion of the management of game systems and properties as “branded” commodities, requiring the development and maintenance of brand cachet and loyalty. This loyalty must withstand assault not only from competing games and game systems but also other entertainment options (as we only have so many hours per day).
The discussion of games in relation to other media outlets leads naturally into a discussion of how video game marketers use these opposing media for the promotion of the game products, thereby co-opting some of the threat posed to their properties. In order to distribute the image and message desired to the target audience, namely media-savvy, cynical gamers, these video game advertisements have become less like ads and more like the media they are embedded within, taking cinematic, dramatic or humorous, tongue-in-cheek approaches to promotion.
The barriers between the different mediums are further blurred by the synergistic flow between television, movies, books, music and video games. This flow exists in all directions, with properties being passed between all potential outlets with no restrictions. The flow even allows entertainment products to be incorporated into advertisements, as well as advertisements to be incorporated into entertainment products (i.e. product placements). To illustrate this fluid and all-encompassing approach to the creation and control of culture through marketing, Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter provide examples of the reach and deliberate cross-genre production marketing effort put forth by the Pokemon franchise.
Leaving aside the fact that Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter take a somewhat elitist view of media, culture and advertising, there is another aspect of this cultural marketing effort which they neglect to address: counter-arguing. The marketing field is represented as an all powerful juggernaut, able to impose its will on the masses without limit. Despite the view put forth by videogame marketers that “marketing…can turn a mediocre game into a successful one”, the roll of independent reviewers, particularly in this age of wikis, blogs and instant information access, is hard to ignore and should not be discounted.
(As an aside, if anyone has not seen the “ZeroPunctuation” videogame review series, you really need to check it out.)
Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter then move into a discussion of the management of game systems and properties as “branded” commodities, requiring the development and maintenance of brand cachet and loyalty. This loyalty must withstand assault not only from competing games and game systems but also other entertainment options (as we only have so many hours per day).
The discussion of games in relation to other media outlets leads naturally into a discussion of how video game marketers use these opposing media for the promotion of the game products, thereby co-opting some of the threat posed to their properties. In order to distribute the image and message desired to the target audience, namely media-savvy, cynical gamers, these video game advertisements have become less like ads and more like the media they are embedded within, taking cinematic, dramatic or humorous, tongue-in-cheek approaches to promotion.
The barriers between the different mediums are further blurred by the synergistic flow between television, movies, books, music and video games. This flow exists in all directions, with properties being passed between all potential outlets with no restrictions. The flow even allows entertainment products to be incorporated into advertisements, as well as advertisements to be incorporated into entertainment products (i.e. product placements). To illustrate this fluid and all-encompassing approach to the creation and control of culture through marketing, Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter provide examples of the reach and deliberate cross-genre production marketing effort put forth by the Pokemon franchise.
Leaving aside the fact that Kline, Dyer-Witheford and de Peuter take a somewhat elitist view of media, culture and advertising, there is another aspect of this cultural marketing effort which they neglect to address: counter-arguing. The marketing field is represented as an all powerful juggernaut, able to impose its will on the masses without limit. Despite the view put forth by videogame marketers that “marketing…can turn a mediocre game into a successful one”, the roll of independent reviewers, particularly in this age of wikis, blogs and instant information access, is hard to ignore and should not be discounted.
(As an aside, if anyone has not seen the “ZeroPunctuation” videogame review series, you really need to check it out.)
Sharendipity Hands On Assignment: Big Ten Conference Asteroids
After seeing Greg Tracy's presentation in class, I knew it would be very difficult to create a game from scratch, but I tried nonetheless. Although my effort proved to be unsuccessful, I gained an appreciation of those who do spend hours of time working on these games and perfecting every little detail to perfect their games.
Even though creating your own games from scratch is very time-consuming, the nice thing about Sharendipity was that I was able to take someone else's game and make it my own. I didn't have to spend tedious hours creating every single aspect of my game from scratch, I could use what others have already created in the Sharendipity community. I decided to borrow an Asteroids game and put my own personal twist on it. Being a big Badger fan and after seeing Greg's gravity Big Ten game, I thought it would be cool to have a Big Ten Asteroids game. So I went on Sharendipity in search of an already created Asteroids game in which I could edit to make my own. After finding one, I went online and found images of all the Big Ten mascots and used them as my asteroids and ships. Of course, I used Bucky as the rocket ship to blast the other mascots. Switching the components in the game (ex. the rocket ship to a Bucky logo) was very simple, which was nice. Finally, my game was complete.
Unfortunately, borrowing other's games and using them leads to everything not being exactly the way you want it to play. For example, Bucky doesn't shoot lasers from the top, he shoots them from the left side I believe, which is inconvenient. So there are definitely draw backs in personalizing other's games, but it is awesome if you just want to create a simple game in a hurry for others to enjoy.
The game isn't the best by any means, but hopefully you all get a chance to play it a little and enjoy it (whether it be having fun or making fun of it). Here's the link: http://apps.facebook.com/sharendipity/assets/1333/
Even though creating your own games from scratch is very time-consuming, the nice thing about Sharendipity was that I was able to take someone else's game and make it my own. I didn't have to spend tedious hours creating every single aspect of my game from scratch, I could use what others have already created in the Sharendipity community. I decided to borrow an Asteroids game and put my own personal twist on it. Being a big Badger fan and after seeing Greg's gravity Big Ten game, I thought it would be cool to have a Big Ten Asteroids game. So I went on Sharendipity in search of an already created Asteroids game in which I could edit to make my own. After finding one, I went online and found images of all the Big Ten mascots and used them as my asteroids and ships. Of course, I used Bucky as the rocket ship to blast the other mascots. Switching the components in the game (ex. the rocket ship to a Bucky logo) was very simple, which was nice. Finally, my game was complete.
Unfortunately, borrowing other's games and using them leads to everything not being exactly the way you want it to play. For example, Bucky doesn't shoot lasers from the top, he shoots them from the left side I believe, which is inconvenient. So there are definitely draw backs in personalizing other's games, but it is awesome if you just want to create a simple game in a hurry for others to enjoy.
The game isn't the best by any means, but hopefully you all get a chance to play it a little and enjoy it (whether it be having fun or making fun of it). Here's the link: http://apps.facebook.com/sharendipity/assets/1333/
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sharendipity
After seeing Greg Tracy’s examples of Sharendipity in class I knew I was going to have to try to create a simple game. My plan was to create a classic Breakout game, but trying to make a ball bounce off a rectangle proved to be very difficult. I struggled for around half an hour, messing with detail after detail until I finally gave up. The last thing I wanted to do was write a page about my failures, so I decided to create a lame alien shooter game. I also chose to cheat and use many of the objects/behaviors already shared in the community.
First, I needed to find my shooter, something I could have shoot lasers. I decided to take the default spaceship object they had and change the picture on it. I’m not going to share what the picture is, you’ll have to play the game to find out.
The main idea of the game I created is to just shoot things until they are gone. I imported an animated gif as the enemies. They randomly fly around and make an explosive sound when shot. The enemies also spawn every .7 seconds so if you slack the game FPS will kill your computer and your browser will probably freeze.
It took my awhile to get everything working, and even when I started the same up today the enemy picture was messed up. I tried to get music in the background but didn’t succeed. Hope you enjoy the game, or at least get a pity laugh out of it.
Here is the link: http://apps.facebook.com/sharendipity/assets/1328/
First, I needed to find my shooter, something I could have shoot lasers. I decided to take the default spaceship object they had and change the picture on it. I’m not going to share what the picture is, you’ll have to play the game to find out.
The main idea of the game I created is to just shoot things until they are gone. I imported an animated gif as the enemies. They randomly fly around and make an explosive sound when shot. The enemies also spawn every .7 seconds so if you slack the game FPS will kill your computer and your browser will probably freeze.
It took my awhile to get everything working, and even when I started the same up today the enemy picture was messed up. I tried to get music in the background but didn’t succeed. Hope you enjoy the game, or at least get a pity laugh out of it.
Here is the link: http://apps.facebook.com/sharendipity/assets/1328/
Maybe the violent video games had an effect...
Having spent the last few days playing with Sharendipity I have a number of comments. The first relates directly to some of the other comments posted on the blog, namely issues with existing games and the interface. There were a number of interesting games I wanted to explore, such as the "Gravity Ball" within the physics section, but was unable to make it work on all occasions. It appears that, despite the fact that Sharendipity uses a Java applet which should be supported across platforms and browsers, some of the controls (specifically those relating to the keyboard) do not all function properly. The only combination which I could make work on a regular basis was IE7 on Windows XP. At this point my blood began to boil...
Which may explain the game concept I attempted to develop. I really enjoyed the "Hunting Season" game ("I can't believe you shot Santa!") and was really interested in the "Facebook Fishbowl", where images of your friends on facebook populate the screen and move about randomly (it's also supposed to display their status, but that didn't work for me). I'm guessing you can see where this is going... I decided to attempt to combine these into a "Friend Hunter", allowing you to take out your frustrations and disagreements in a safe, online environment (ie. catharsis).
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you are one of my facebook friends, this is where the plan fell through. Though I was able to locate the function which imports friend pictures, I was unable to make sense of it for two reasons: 1) I could not have the help documentation (or any other internet window) open in conjunction with the editing space and 2) I was unable to resize the editing space in order to see all of the code at once. I will admit that this failure may also have to do with my overambitious idea, but given that it should have required no additional coding, consisting soley of gobbing together existing functions....
Regardless, I do recomend trying out the "Hunting Season" game, and will continue to play with and explore the possibilities offered by the Sharendipity platform.
Which may explain the game concept I attempted to develop. I really enjoyed the "Hunting Season" game ("I can't believe you shot Santa!") and was really interested in the "Facebook Fishbowl", where images of your friends on facebook populate the screen and move about randomly (it's also supposed to display their status, but that didn't work for me). I'm guessing you can see where this is going... I decided to attempt to combine these into a "Friend Hunter", allowing you to take out your frustrations and disagreements in a safe, online environment (ie. catharsis).
Unfortunately, or fortunately if you are one of my facebook friends, this is where the plan fell through. Though I was able to locate the function which imports friend pictures, I was unable to make sense of it for two reasons: 1) I could not have the help documentation (or any other internet window) open in conjunction with the editing space and 2) I was unable to resize the editing space in order to see all of the code at once. I will admit that this failure may also have to do with my overambitious idea, but given that it should have required no additional coding, consisting soley of gobbing together existing functions....
Regardless, I do recomend trying out the "Hunting Season" game, and will continue to play with and explore the possibilities offered by the Sharendipity platform.
Wherein I Fail...sorta (re: Sharendipity)
I just spent the last little bit goofing about with Sharendipity, too. I attempted to come up with some sort of game or interaction among the objects I created, but I ran into a few stumbling blocks. The first one was that every time I tried to view another webpage in a separate tab from the Sharendipity-in-Facebook app (Firefox 2.x, Mac OS X 10.5.3), the Flash screen featuring Sharendipity blurred out all other content. This means that when I tried to open up the tutorial pages, I couldn't do so while still working in Sharendipity at the same time. This resulted in me twice losing work when I had to close the window.
The real problem, though, is that I realized that I really have no concept for a game. This is what Jasun mentioned in class today - design before you develop! While it's fun to play around with a sandbox/construction set, that is really only going to take me so far. I decided to mess about with the Sharendipity games already out there, and played the flower bloom one. I played it for _ten_minutes before I glanced at the clock again, and probably could have kept going. I'm actually going to give it another spin in a second here.
So while I can't fully endorse Sharendipity as either easy enough or fun enough to grab my attention, I think if I actually had an idea for a cool kind of game that I would actually want to go somewhere with, to have a toolkit at my avail would be excellent. God knows I'm no programmer.
(The thing I did have the idea to make was some sort of bullseye/target shooting game, but not only did I lack in concept, but I think some of my art ideas were also falling well short of the mark. Then I started having operator errors, so to speak, with Sharendipity itself.)
The real problem, though, is that I realized that I really have no concept for a game. This is what Jasun mentioned in class today - design before you develop! While it's fun to play around with a sandbox/construction set, that is really only going to take me so far. I decided to mess about with the Sharendipity games already out there, and played the flower bloom one. I played it for _ten_minutes before I glanced at the clock again, and probably could have kept going. I'm actually going to give it another spin in a second here.
So while I can't fully endorse Sharendipity as either easy enough or fun enough to grab my attention, I think if I actually had an idea for a cool kind of game that I would actually want to go somewhere with, to have a toolkit at my avail would be excellent. God knows I'm no programmer.
(The thing I did have the idea to make was some sort of bullseye/target shooting game, but not only did I lack in concept, but I think some of my art ideas were also falling well short of the mark. Then I started having operator errors, so to speak, with Sharendipity itself.)
Sharendipity
At first I was really excited to try out some games the users created and explore the limits of what people have discovered. Unfortunately, I encountered two things that prevented me from doing this. First, my web browser was missing a necessary application to use this program or it was that this certain application wasn’t enabled. After ten minutes or so of screwing around with my web browser I finally got it working. So, I decided to try out some games. To my dismay, the controls just weren’t responding. I told the ship to go right…it didn’t’ go right; instead it got pounded by rocks until I died every time. I tried out a couple of other games and the same problems occurred. I don’t know if this is computer specific--I hope it isn’t cause then this company is going nowhere. But, I’m sure it is just me.
As for editing I was able to mess around with that a little. I tried to keep things simple and mostly tweaked the images in the game and once I messed with the force applied to an object. It was fun being able to manipulate and personalize certain games, but I could not play them. It looked good, but the aesthetic value is meaningless without game play. Once again it probably is just my computer, but it’s all I have at the moment. When I got back to Madison I will try it out on some other computers and hopefully the games will start responding to the controls listed in the instructions.
As for editing I was able to mess around with that a little. I tried to keep things simple and mostly tweaked the images in the game and once I messed with the force applied to an object. It was fun being able to manipulate and personalize certain games, but I could not play them. It looked good, but the aesthetic value is meaningless without game play. Once again it probably is just my computer, but it’s all I have at the moment. When I got back to Madison I will try it out on some other computers and hopefully the games will start responding to the controls listed in the instructions.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Violent Video Games - Jeffrey Goldstein
Starting off with a snapshot of Mr. Goldstein to put a picture to his words.The first thing I noticed about this article was its “encyclopedia like” style and that it is full of a ton of good information and quotes. Goldstein begins the article stating his goal of looking critically at definitions and empirical studies dealing with the video game violence issue. He also lists a few questions that he hoped to answer by the end of the chapter. They are:
What is a violent video game?
How does its violence differ from other media violence, and from real life violence?
How do consumers of video games perceive the violence before them?
Since there is so much information and references in this article, I’ll go through some of the things I found most interesting in each of the sections.
In his first section, Meanings of Violence in Video Games introduces a couple interesting ideas. First he talk about the Third-Person Effects in Media Research, which is the idea that media affects others, but not oneself. This effect has even been seen in older children talking about younger children. We have also seen this effect in a number of media pieces from class. Additionally in this section he proposes the idea that the exaggerated use of violence in video games, film and other media is a product of the American society. This is interesting because I know I’ve heard before that there have been studies where non-Americans watched sessions of American television and after surveys it has been shown that they saw the world as a scarier and meaner world.
Goldstein introduces three research strategies mainly used when studying the effects of violent video games; correlational studies, experiments, and meta –analysis.
First he goes into correlational studies and addresses right away that there is little causal information that can be pulled from these. Any study he mentioned, he quickly said no significant relationship could be concluded.
His experiments section has the more detail and information. I’ll go into a few of them because I think they are interesting. First, the study conducted by Craig Anderson and Karen Dill where they tried to find two video games similar in everything but violence. They chose Wolfenstein 3D and Myst. Even though the experiment found some interesting things, it was criticized because the games, which were supposed to be similar other than violence, were not.
He goes through multiple experiments and for each of them presents their flaws. Even in the meta-analysis, which is when you take the data from many studies and try to find conclusion with all of the data clumped together.
At the end of the article he concluded that, “the research is too inconsistent and insubstantial to allow any conclusion to be drawn.” Overall the article is an excess of information and experiment about video games and violence, but it draws no conclusions.
Leisureville
"Imagine what America might look like if a sizable minority of its elders secede into their own communities. That’s just what’s happening, except until now no one was talking about it. It’s called age-segregation and it’s an increasingly popular form of societal secession. More than 12 million Americans aged 55 and older are expected to live in these gated playpens in the next decade or so, and that’s a very conservative estimate..."
David Williamson Shaffer and James Paul Gee Reading Summary
Reading Summary
“Before Every Child Is Left Behind: How Epistemic Games Can Solve the Coming Crisis in Education”
David Williamson Shaffer and James Paul Gee
The Crisis
In the wake of the 21st century and all her advancements, the environment for businesses’, workers, governments and states are quickly evolving (Shaffer & Gee). As “old [American] capitalism” crumbles beneath the pressures of a system predominated by a need for American innovation, the endless quest for ownership over the term “new” moves perpetually forward—undermined only by a major flaw inherent to capitalism. American’s have reached a juncture where the laws of capitalism no longer favor the red, white and blue. No, in fact, a high standard of living comes at a heavy price. “Commodity jobs” and labor favors cheaper job markets. The jobs, much like water, travel from high to low behind the whip of capitalism—from the First to the Third World—acting like gravity in this familiar equation.
What actually defines a “commodity job,” argues Shaffer and Gee, is simply the jobs vulnerability to be outsourced. This includes anything from high to low end jobs according to all normative and societal accounts. From the family doctor to the guy that screw’s on J.I. Joe head’s at the factory, any job outsource-able will inevitably be outsourced (Shaffer & Gee).
The New Crisis
The “new wrinkle” that has formed on the blueprint of American capitalism has elevated the ‘crisis’ of old to the status of ‘new’: namely, that highly skilled positions—those once safeguarded by geographical constraints—can now also travel across seas.
Moving on Up!
America has responded to this crisis by orienting training and education in America towards occupations demanding skill and innovation. America looks to hew itself into the image of the cutting edge of the 21st century. America, however, is not alone in this race, as Third World countries also want to become the place of technological dominance. Thus, Americans must “work and learn smarter” to continue to compete in the race towards innovation and discovery.
Schooling and De-Innovation
Cut backs, however, in funding for the sciences, the arts and any fields on the forefront of innovation have stunted the evolution of the American educational system towards this promising direction. Instead, America continues to produce more commodity workers in a nation without a sustainable commodity production job market of its own. As “standardized testing… [produces] standardized skills,” the average Joe America is being cheated out of an applicable educational curriculum, leaving many children behind despite governmental efforts.
Key Insight: “China has 300 million skilled and educated workers, more than the entire population of the United States… Inspired by the goal of leaving no child behind in basic skills, [America is] leaving all of our children, rich and poor, well behind in the new global competition for innovative work.”
As we attempt to approach the “highest levels of the value chain,” American’s in general, which have been focused as a whole on in improving proficiency in reading, have failed to gain other, more pertinent skills—such as the ability to understand a complicated technological symbol system.
Preparing for Innovation
The skills necessary for achieving innovation don’t start in college, but instead, begin as early as kindergarten (foreign language metaphor—better to learn at a younger age). This includes immersing children in technology from a young age. This also includes immersing children in complex conversation even if they don’t fully understand, even at a young age. This type of speaking should be “school based” and not simply vernacular. This school based conversation, in ideal circumstances, would resonate from school to the home. Public schools, however, are not holding up their end of the bargain.
Example: “The Age of Mythology”: Video game dealing with complex problem solving, decision making and spatial skills, being able to modify any component of the game as pleased.
The New Equity Gap
Children’s pop culture, argues the authors, is more advanced than ever before. This represents an avenue of opportunity for educators, as any number of games and technologies that kids might be using in contemporary America generally have more advanced use of technologically relevant subject matter.
Key Insight: This leg up, however, can hinder those American public schools on the more barren side of the digital divide. Without technology being present in many inner-city schools, already disadvantaged students are only hindered more. Overall, Americans are investing more time and labor in get-rich quick areas such as law and business, shying away from more Asian dominated technological fields.
The Solution
With liberals and conservatives equally contributing to, rather than diminishing, the growth of this crisis, the solution doesn’t just lie in economic reform, but in Epistemic games. A good example of an epistemic game is Madison 2200 in which student ‘urban planners’ design a city that will function healthily, to the best of their capability. This requires a deeper understanding of societal, scientific and economical issues (Remember the MIT guy from The Video Game Revolution when he taught is son how to budget on the Sims.) This game has been used with success when applied to “at risk” students.
Epistemic Frames
(1) MUST NOT be standardized. (Madison 2200 versus standardized tests in sociology, economics, psychology and other arts and sciences)
(2) Madison 2200 (game) taught students how to understand the complexities of city planning, and more importantly, how to carry over that knowledge to other situations. Digital Zoo represents another game detailing other disciplines (Biology and Physics).
(3) These games, above all else, are highly fact-oriented to improve their external effects after the game is over.
(4) Yield innovative thinkers because they are opened to this range of thinking well before college and the professional years.
(5) From Assessment orientation → Epistemic orientation = an improvement. Just because a student can memorize and regurgitate Newton’s Laws of Motion does not mean he can apply them to practical life.
(6) Overcoming the “fourth-grade slump” when children have a problem going from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
(7) The new model for learning in a global society rich in culture and digital culture.
“Before Every Child Is Left Behind: How Epistemic Games Can Solve the Coming Crisis in Education”
David Williamson Shaffer and James Paul Gee
The Crisis
In the wake of the 21st century and all her advancements, the environment for businesses’, workers, governments and states are quickly evolving (Shaffer & Gee). As “old [American] capitalism” crumbles beneath the pressures of a system predominated by a need for American innovation, the endless quest for ownership over the term “new” moves perpetually forward—undermined only by a major flaw inherent to capitalism. American’s have reached a juncture where the laws of capitalism no longer favor the red, white and blue. No, in fact, a high standard of living comes at a heavy price. “Commodity jobs” and labor favors cheaper job markets. The jobs, much like water, travel from high to low behind the whip of capitalism—from the First to the Third World—acting like gravity in this familiar equation.
What actually defines a “commodity job,” argues Shaffer and Gee, is simply the jobs vulnerability to be outsourced. This includes anything from high to low end jobs according to all normative and societal accounts. From the family doctor to the guy that screw’s on J.I. Joe head’s at the factory, any job outsource-able will inevitably be outsourced (Shaffer & Gee).
The New Crisis
The “new wrinkle” that has formed on the blueprint of American capitalism has elevated the ‘crisis’ of old to the status of ‘new’: namely, that highly skilled positions—those once safeguarded by geographical constraints—can now also travel across seas.
Moving on Up!
America has responded to this crisis by orienting training and education in America towards occupations demanding skill and innovation. America looks to hew itself into the image of the cutting edge of the 21st century. America, however, is not alone in this race, as Third World countries also want to become the place of technological dominance. Thus, Americans must “work and learn smarter” to continue to compete in the race towards innovation and discovery.
Schooling and De-Innovation
Cut backs, however, in funding for the sciences, the arts and any fields on the forefront of innovation have stunted the evolution of the American educational system towards this promising direction. Instead, America continues to produce more commodity workers in a nation without a sustainable commodity production job market of its own. As “standardized testing… [produces] standardized skills,” the average Joe America is being cheated out of an applicable educational curriculum, leaving many children behind despite governmental efforts.
Key Insight: “China has 300 million skilled and educated workers, more than the entire population of the United States… Inspired by the goal of leaving no child behind in basic skills, [America is] leaving all of our children, rich and poor, well behind in the new global competition for innovative work.”
As we attempt to approach the “highest levels of the value chain,” American’s in general, which have been focused as a whole on in improving proficiency in reading, have failed to gain other, more pertinent skills—such as the ability to understand a complicated technological symbol system.
Preparing for Innovation
The skills necessary for achieving innovation don’t start in college, but instead, begin as early as kindergarten (foreign language metaphor—better to learn at a younger age). This includes immersing children in technology from a young age. This also includes immersing children in complex conversation even if they don’t fully understand, even at a young age. This type of speaking should be “school based” and not simply vernacular. This school based conversation, in ideal circumstances, would resonate from school to the home. Public schools, however, are not holding up their end of the bargain.
Example: “The Age of Mythology”: Video game dealing with complex problem solving, decision making and spatial skills, being able to modify any component of the game as pleased.
The New Equity Gap
Children’s pop culture, argues the authors, is more advanced than ever before. This represents an avenue of opportunity for educators, as any number of games and technologies that kids might be using in contemporary America generally have more advanced use of technologically relevant subject matter.
Key Insight: This leg up, however, can hinder those American public schools on the more barren side of the digital divide. Without technology being present in many inner-city schools, already disadvantaged students are only hindered more. Overall, Americans are investing more time and labor in get-rich quick areas such as law and business, shying away from more Asian dominated technological fields.
The Solution
With liberals and conservatives equally contributing to, rather than diminishing, the growth of this crisis, the solution doesn’t just lie in economic reform, but in Epistemic games. A good example of an epistemic game is Madison 2200 in which student ‘urban planners’ design a city that will function healthily, to the best of their capability. This requires a deeper understanding of societal, scientific and economical issues (Remember the MIT guy from The Video Game Revolution when he taught is son how to budget on the Sims.) This game has been used with success when applied to “at risk” students.
Epistemic Frames
(1) MUST NOT be standardized. (Madison 2200 versus standardized tests in sociology, economics, psychology and other arts and sciences)
(2) Madison 2200 (game) taught students how to understand the complexities of city planning, and more importantly, how to carry over that knowledge to other situations. Digital Zoo represents another game detailing other disciplines (Biology and Physics).
(3) These games, above all else, are highly fact-oriented to improve their external effects after the game is over.
(4) Yield innovative thinkers because they are opened to this range of thinking well before college and the professional years.
(5) From Assessment orientation → Epistemic orientation = an improvement. Just because a student can memorize and regurgitate Newton’s Laws of Motion does not mean he can apply them to practical life.
(6) Overcoming the “fourth-grade slump” when children have a problem going from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.”
(7) The new model for learning in a global society rich in culture and digital culture.
Mizuko Ito, "Education vs. entertainment: A cultural history of children's software
Mizuko "Mimi" Ito is a scholar and researcher at USC's School of Cinematic Arts. Her article, "Education vs. Entertainment: A Cultural History Children's Software," makes up a chapter of the recent MIT Press edited volume The Ecology of Games.
Ito's contribution stems in great part from work she did on her dissertation and is largely ethnographic in nature, just the type of research that Goldstein and Williams called for in yesterday's readings. In this piece, Ito endeavors to map the landscape of software developed for and marketed toward children over the last 30 years, making some interesting observations and delineating certain features in so doing. She is careful to point out that the commercial nature of much of this software places it and a "boundary zone" between education and entertainment - an issue for many types of materials consumed by young people, but perhaps particularly acute in the digital realm. For purposes of this article, there seems to be no great differentiation made between computer games and more traditional video/arcade-style games; in fact, most of the titles Ito invokes have been traditionally played on a home computer.
Ito begins by identifying three "genres" of children's software: academic, entertainment and construction, and goes on to state that she plans to examine the genres from the points of view of their "production and advertising...design...and at sites of play." This is approach seems as though it will cover issues pertaining to children's software in a comprehensive way.
In this dense and complex academic article, Ito makes several excellent points. First, she notes that new technologies (children's software included) do not emerge in a vacuum; rather, they are cultural byproducts and artifacts like any other, subject to a variety of stages of acceptance - a period known as "interpretive flexibility." She cites the bicycle as another innovation that went through this same period; for anyone interested in learning more about that, check out a book entitled The Adman in the Parlor for hilarious turn of the 20th century ad copy about bicycles - it is quite instructive.
Ito also cites the importance of how other media interrelate with new technologies. She pays special attention, for example, to examining ad copy, thinking about distribution and in what contexts the game is adopted (introducing these notions as a concept called the "circuit of culture").
After providing this framework for her discussion, Ito then gives a detailed historical account of how educational and children's games came into being, through a variety of pathways (via educators, via commercial means, etc.) Ito also discusses how these games were then targeted not only to children, but also to educators, parents and other children's culture gatekeepers. Here, again, she denotes three types ("genres") of games: academic, entertainment and construction. Each one of these genres has played out slightly differently as children's electronic/computer gaming has developed, and Ito gives a history and example for them all. Briefly, games she denotes as "educational" include early titles such as Rocky's Boots and Oregon Trail; many of these games and their companies can trace their roots directly back to academe or to K-12 institutions. Games deemed "entertainment" include the types of things produced by traditional toymakers (e.g. Mattel) using branded properties (e.g. Barbie). Construction games are a wide gamut that range from Will Wright's Sim City titles to, interestingly, the programming language known as LOGO. LOGO is a particularly interesting case, because one of, if not the primary, learning outcomes of that software is to teach kids computer literacy. It may be one of the first examples of software created with that sort of intentionality and with those goals in mind.
The last portion of Ito's article is consecrated to sharing and discussing the results of on-site interactions and observations of youth playing a variety of computer games in an afterschool club setting. These 5th Dimension computer clubs, interestingly, also exist at an intersection between leisure and instruction/education.
The anecdotes from the play recorded at the club suggest that even in ostensibly linear educational games, kids will find ways to develop their own play methods and mechanisms for problem-solving and will "freestyle" within the game, if given the chance. Often times, achieving an outcome is prized over the methods.
Also interesting about the sequences is the fact that the kids' play seems to always include adults interacting and mediating the game experience. Ito also cites the importance of "the element of spectacle," which often runs in contrast to what authority figures (e.g. supervising adults, game designers) think the outcomes should be.
Ito has the highest hopes for the construction genre of gaming in an educational context, citing their tool-mastery aspect and the creativity and individuation they inspire.
Ito's contribution stems in great part from work she did on her dissertation and is largely ethnographic in nature, just the type of research that Goldstein and Williams called for in yesterday's readings. In this piece, Ito endeavors to map the landscape of software developed for and marketed toward children over the last 30 years, making some interesting observations and delineating certain features in so doing. She is careful to point out that the commercial nature of much of this software places it and a "boundary zone" between education and entertainment - an issue for many types of materials consumed by young people, but perhaps particularly acute in the digital realm. For purposes of this article, there seems to be no great differentiation made between computer games and more traditional video/arcade-style games; in fact, most of the titles Ito invokes have been traditionally played on a home computer.
Ito begins by identifying three "genres" of children's software: academic, entertainment and construction, and goes on to state that she plans to examine the genres from the points of view of their "production and advertising...design...and at sites of play." This is approach seems as though it will cover issues pertaining to children's software in a comprehensive way.
In this dense and complex academic article, Ito makes several excellent points. First, she notes that new technologies (children's software included) do not emerge in a vacuum; rather, they are cultural byproducts and artifacts like any other, subject to a variety of stages of acceptance - a period known as "interpretive flexibility." She cites the bicycle as another innovation that went through this same period; for anyone interested in learning more about that, check out a book entitled The Adman in the Parlor for hilarious turn of the 20th century ad copy about bicycles - it is quite instructive.
Ito also cites the importance of how other media interrelate with new technologies. She pays special attention, for example, to examining ad copy, thinking about distribution and in what contexts the game is adopted (introducing these notions as a concept called the "circuit of culture").
After providing this framework for her discussion, Ito then gives a detailed historical account of how educational and children's games came into being, through a variety of pathways (via educators, via commercial means, etc.) Ito also discusses how these games were then targeted not only to children, but also to educators, parents and other children's culture gatekeepers. Here, again, she denotes three types ("genres") of games: academic, entertainment and construction. Each one of these genres has played out slightly differently as children's electronic/computer gaming has developed, and Ito gives a history and example for them all. Briefly, games she denotes as "educational" include early titles such as Rocky's Boots and Oregon Trail; many of these games and their companies can trace their roots directly back to academe or to K-12 institutions. Games deemed "entertainment" include the types of things produced by traditional toymakers (e.g. Mattel) using branded properties (e.g. Barbie). Construction games are a wide gamut that range from Will Wright's Sim City titles to, interestingly, the programming language known as LOGO. LOGO is a particularly interesting case, because one of, if not the primary, learning outcomes of that software is to teach kids computer literacy. It may be one of the first examples of software created with that sort of intentionality and with those goals in mind.
The last portion of Ito's article is consecrated to sharing and discussing the results of on-site interactions and observations of youth playing a variety of computer games in an afterschool club setting. These 5th Dimension computer clubs, interestingly, also exist at an intersection between leisure and instruction/education.
The anecdotes from the play recorded at the club suggest that even in ostensibly linear educational games, kids will find ways to develop their own play methods and mechanisms for problem-solving and will "freestyle" within the game, if given the chance. Often times, achieving an outcome is prized over the methods.
Also interesting about the sequences is the fact that the kids' play seems to always include adults interacting and mediating the game experience. Ito also cites the importance of "the element of spectacle," which often runs in contrast to what authority figures (e.g. supervising adults, game designers) think the outcomes should be.
Ito has the highest hopes for the construction genre of gaming in an educational context, citing their tool-mastery aspect and the creativity and individuation they inspire.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
WHAT’S IN A VIDEO GAME? REGULATION OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES AND THE FIRST AMENDMENT
On March 29, 2006 the United States Senate, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary met to discuss possible regulations and the constitutionality of prohibiting video game sales to minors. The Chairman for this proceeding is Senator Brownback from Kansas. The goal of this meeting is to discuss the recent developments in state efforts to restrict the sale of violent video games to minors and, as put by Chairman Brownback, “to try to get and to build a factual basis of why there as a legitimate state interest in legislating on violence in video games and their targeting and marketing toward children” (3). This whole proceeding is mostly centered around a group of two panels. In the first panel the discussion is mostly related to effects of video games on children and in the second it concerns the constitutionality of regulating video games.
The first witness is Reverend Strickland whose brother was shot by a teen that is reported to be an avid player of video games. He talks about how his brother was a police officer and the teen age boy took his gun and shot him as well as two other officers. To this the boy replied, “life is a video game everyone has to die sometime” (6). He talks more in depth about how simulators relative to cop killing games create such behavior.
The next witness is Ms Carll is far more concerned with the way violence is portrayed in video games as well as sexual and racial themes. The sort of aggression against women especially in violent games is “depicted as humorous and glamorous and is rewarded” (9). Her recommendations for helping to alleviate worries is: 1) teach children about media literacy and 2) link violent behaviors with negative social consequences. However, Dmitri Williams from U of I believes that we should take more skeptically to the video game violence epidemic. The studies so far have been way too short and inconclusive to decide whether or not regulations apply.
Now, the constitutionality issue around violent video games arises because of the first amendment. One comment that I think puts the issue best is this, “our Constitution mandates that the Government regulate behavior, not speech that is perceived as likely to cause undesirable behavior among listeners or recipients” (27). Since the science is lacking quite a bit in these issues it may be too soon to impose government regulations on video games. Kevin Saunders, Professor of Law at MSU, believes that the first amendment issue can be resolved by: 1) argue sufficiently that violent material, when presented to children, is obscene or 2) is that video game activity is not an activity protected by the first amendment. Whether or not these to strategies will work I believe that more long term studies should be conducted first and the focus should be on the parents obligation to filter and teach their kids about inappropriate forms of media.
The first witness is Reverend Strickland whose brother was shot by a teen that is reported to be an avid player of video games. He talks about how his brother was a police officer and the teen age boy took his gun and shot him as well as two other officers. To this the boy replied, “life is a video game everyone has to die sometime” (6). He talks more in depth about how simulators relative to cop killing games create such behavior.
The next witness is Ms Carll is far more concerned with the way violence is portrayed in video games as well as sexual and racial themes. The sort of aggression against women especially in violent games is “depicted as humorous and glamorous and is rewarded” (9). Her recommendations for helping to alleviate worries is: 1) teach children about media literacy and 2) link violent behaviors with negative social consequences. However, Dmitri Williams from U of I believes that we should take more skeptically to the video game violence epidemic. The studies so far have been way too short and inconclusive to decide whether or not regulations apply.
Now, the constitutionality issue around violent video games arises because of the first amendment. One comment that I think puts the issue best is this, “our Constitution mandates that the Government regulate behavior, not speech that is perceived as likely to cause undesirable behavior among listeners or recipients” (27). Since the science is lacking quite a bit in these issues it may be too soon to impose government regulations on video games. Kevin Saunders, Professor of Law at MSU, believes that the first amendment issue can be resolved by: 1) argue sufficiently that violent material, when presented to children, is obscene or 2) is that video game activity is not an activity protected by the first amendment. Whether or not these to strategies will work I believe that more long term studies should be conducted first and the focus should be on the parents obligation to filter and teach their kids about inappropriate forms of media.
Nina Huntemann CV
Assistant Professor, Communication & Journalism, Suffolk College. Ph.D., Communication, February 2005. University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dissertation: "Policy and Culture in the Digital Age: A Cultural Policy Analysis of the US Commercial Radio Industry".
Feminist Studies Certificate, Women's Studies, September 2001. University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Other info available on the site. Note the name of her website, too - "mediacritica.net."
Feminist Studies Certificate, Women's Studies, September 2001. University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Other info available on the site. Note the name of her website, too - "mediacritica.net."
Monday, June 23, 2008
Civilization... sorta
For those who haven't played Civ before, here's a link to an open-source replica. Stiil being developed (like all open-source software) and can be a little buggy, but worth the cost :)
http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
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