Monthly Archives: December 2006

And we’re off!

27 December 2006

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I’m in Australia now, we’ve started the prologue of Zelda and we’re kinda confused! Hehe!

We flew during the night – which was obviously completely wrong for me, I have enough problems falling asleep on planes but this time we flew Singapore Airlines! They had GAMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nintendo and computer games! It was a thrill!!! And I felt like I was flying first class, the service was unbelievable!

Anyways, I’ve managed to get my travel blog started – I don’t know how much I’ll be updating – family holidays have busy schedules! We’ll see what happens with it!

Please excuse my silence!

25 December 2006

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I’m in Singapore and having a great time! The week before that was just spent celebrating the fact that I finally handed in ‘the sucker’! So – my feeds are piling up – and I have so much I want to say that I’m about to explode! I feel uninformed and unsatisfied!!! Tomorrow I’m going to a secret shop to get some programs, then off to get some more toys for my darling nephews – because tomorrow night (round midnight) I’ll be on a plane to see them! I’ve started a blog – which I haven’t written in yet, about the trip – so I’ve decided to spend the afternoon at a restaurant watching the people going by – sipping wine (hey! I’m on holiday) – and away from my travel companions – and just blog my impressions! I’m sooooooo looking forward to it! But we’ll see what happens!

Did you know…Wii isn’t in Singapore yet?!!! It’s so weird! I need to figure out why – because my understanding of Singapore English is still kinda shaky so the shop keepers haven’t given me a good enough explanation (I end up just nodding my head understandingly). But it certainly is on the ‘to do’ list! And – well – I would love to go on – but I’m just soooooooooo tired!!! Need to sleep! But I certainly want some time to blog tomorrow! That would be lovely!

Yay – Second Life and Sundance!

13 December 2006

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I haven’t been excited about Second Life for a long time – but this – this is what I’ve been looking forward to!!

Mark Wallace reports that the Sundance Channel(there’s a channel?!!) is coming to Second Life. From the press release:

“Sundance Channel’s SL screening room will be used to showcase films,
documentaries, shorts and original series and to host unique interactive events
with filmmakers and other independent thinkers”

Yes! Yes! Yes! By gosh someone’s got it!!! They’re starting off with Four Eyed Monsters – which I’m really looking forward to!
I just sincerely hope that they’ll take this new audience seriously and not just think that because it’s a virtual world they’ll only want to watch virtual world themed shows. This is a wonderful place to introduce independent film makers from all over the world!!! Gawww – yeah!!! Just think of all the wonderfulness that’s out there that we don’t get to see because no one’s buying! And experiencing such things is done so much better together with someone! And the communities – ohhhhh! I just see so many beautiful things happening from this partnership I’m going way overboard!
Update: Well – I haven’t been paying attention have I? Tony Walsh at Clickable Culture is a bit more sceptic – with good reason! But if it can really be done! I still say go go go!!!

Level Up!

8 December 2006

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Yet another WoW Machinima music video – by Chaosvex and Zealous1 (sorry guys – links not working at the moment). I had a good chuckle – the lyrics are fabulous!

“This is the time in the song if you need to go take a break, press pause,
Do what you gotta do,
Check your voicemail, check your e-mail, check your messenger,
Check your MySpace, check The Screw, ok here we go”


Thanks glorious library of all fascinating things!

State of Play – New York Law School

8 December 2006

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So they’ve had a State of Play conference in New York and Mark Wallace does a wonderful job of summing up the whole thing – bless him! Looks like they’ve really been critical of themselves and looking to see what could be done in future research – which I think is good!

One thing that surprised me however was Jesper Juul’s post on the discussion of ‘games have rules’. I’ve accepted that ages ago, and I really don’t understand what the problem is in acknowledging that games have rules and most importantly NEED rules – but apparently, they still can’t agree on that. Juul breaks the discussion down to two positions – pro-rules vs. anti-rules.

“Pro-rules people generally make pragmatic descriptions of the gameplaying activity, and anti-rules people commonly apply a general poststructuralist skapticism towards descriptions of structure.”

I’m baffled that this is still disagreed upon. In my thesis (which I’d love to write all over again) I broke everything down to two issues – gameplay and societal -> rules and identity. Just because some players choose to defy some of these rules doesn’t mean that they’re not complying with them. Rather acknowledging them to then defy them. The gameplay rules are what makes the world a game – and we mustn’t forget that worlds like, Second Life are NOT games – so we should stop using them as examples. The societal rules are something that is considered by your gameplay method and social communication. Um – maybe I’m not ready to talk about this yet.

Argh!!!

6 December 2006

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The State of Play conference that I was soooooooooooo much looking forward to in Singapore is postponed! That just sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!! Argh!!! What an absolute bummer!!!!!!!!!!!

“State of Play IV: Building the Global Metaverse, the fourth annual State of Play conference on the future of cyberspace, originally scheduled to be held in Singapore on January 7 – 9, 2007, is being rescheduled to a new date in the spring semester 2007, soon to be announced.”

Argh – and I had changed my ticket and everything!!

Sigh! So it obviously was too good to be true! So disappointed!! What a complete bummer!!!

FIN!

4 December 2006

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I’ve been too depressed and embarrassed that I didn’t get to hand in November 15th – that I really haven’t blogged about it. But – now I have freshly printed copies by my side and I’m just waiting for the print shop to open, so I can get them bound and handed in.

In theory, since I missed the November 15th deadline, I could wait until February – but I couldn’t live with this sucker for that long! I’m going on holiday 20th December – and I’m gonna freakin’ enjoy it! There’s lots of work I could done on it, still – but I don’t think work like this is EVER done! I’ve had to skip a lot of discussions that I would have loved to include! And, to be honest – my chapter on Ownership is just skimming the surface of most arguments and cramming them into a small chapter – very little consistent analysis! My advisor has also warned me about my language! I blame the American Academics that write so colorful and adventurous – apperantly that’s not the wisest way to go! Oh well – I’ve done some dullifying – the rest they’ll just have to punish me for! Oh how I hope I pass! Failing you’re Masters Thesis must be the worst bummer ever!!

It’s been one hell of a night! I’ve messed up the whole thing so many times tonight it’s not even funny! Printer trouble and table of contents that just had me in knots and frantic outbreaks! If it wasn’t because my good friend, Ronny – urgh – I don’t even wanna think about it!

So yeah – now – FIND A JOB!! Yay!!! And I’m gonna have to play some!!!

I’m meeting the cHixOrs at 6 pm for dinner – let me know if you wanna join us! ;)

I really wouldn’t mind crashing a few bars tonight – but the sad thing about mondays, I dare not even ask! Also – I’ve been trying not to jinx this! I still haven’t gotten them bound – and who knows what the rules of handing in are?! I’m sure there’s much more stricter rules than what I got “5 copies”. So I think I’m gonna hold off asking people to celebrate with me until I know for a FACT everything is alright! I’m not jinxing things by blogging now, am I?

You know, I was supposed to be in bed by midnight! Just way too many things that went wrong! Ohhhhhhhhhhh ….. I can’t wait to really get into blogging again!!!! I’ve missed those little peaks of interest, investigation and writing!!!

Update: Jepp – it’s handed in! Yay!!!

Ryzom

2 December 2006

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I’m busy editing and administrating my references – so just a quick stop to tell you about Ryzom!!!

The community of MMORPG Ryzom is trying to buy the game to save it!!! Apparently Nevrax, the producers of the game are in trouble (I’m not sure what that’s about) and the company’s in danger of entering non-existence – if this happens The Free Ryzom Campaign will by the source code and distribute it for free!

“Rather than just consuming the game, everyone will be able to contribute to it.” – Xavier Antoviaque, a founder of the campaig and an ex-employee of Nevrax.

It’s such a beautiful gesture – but my skepticism is shadowing the whole thing! I’m not sure this is a good idea! But a great way for gamers to show initiative and save a world! That’s just so admirable!!

Source: BBC