Ooooh!!! I was in stitches!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Category Archives: Game Culture
Korean Energy Commercial
So…I’m on the trail of fact finding! Sigh! I didn’t know it would be this hard? What? Am I too tired to think straight? Anyways – going through some previous blog stuff – like Korea’s legislature on MMOs, which ofcourse led me GameStudy – a study group for gaming culture of Korea which in turn led me to this commercial! It translates to: “All of Youth, It is time for taking “Enerzen”. While your competitors are sleeping, You, brave new worker, should recharge your energy for the win”.
First off – hahahahhahahahaha! Brave new worker!!!! Hehe! How lovely!!!
And then there’s the Americanized singing in the end! Hoooo hooo! Oh, I know I should take these things much more seriously – I’m just tired! And I want to find my freakin facts!!!!!! Anyways…enjoy!
Games as Art Discussion
Oooh! Almost forgot!!! The Ludologist reports:
“Join us on Wednesday, November 1st for a chat with on the subject of games and art with Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Marc LeBlanc, and Eric Zimmerman.
…
Are games art? If not, why not? And if so, why? Is thinking of games as art useful or actually a hindrance for game developers? If games are art, what should our aspirations for the form be?”
Network: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #gamesandart
Time: 6 PM PST, 9PM EST, 2 AM GMT
There’s a link on how to get on the IRC (which I honestly don’t even know what is yet).
Doubtful that I’ll be awake – but you might! Great minds talking about an interesting subject!
MMORPGs as New Media
That’s where I wanna go!!! Well…at the moment at least! I’m sitting here revising some Poster quotes and I’m mesmerised and pumped!!! Medium theory and MMORPGs! It’s perfect! If someday I’m lucky, I wanna write about MMORPGs as a medium – what communication media is available and how people use them! Oh – my mind is ecstatic!!! I can barely just touch the theme in my present work, but it was needed for me to understand what the hell MMORPGs really are, what the play is and how players interact with the software. This whole RMT thing is fascinating – but, you know, I’m gonna leave that to the nerdy economists. Play in MMORPGs as narrative and fiction? Well…definitely interesting and something I’ll keep my eye on. Intellectual Property Rights of gameplay? Argh – enough lawyers on that one – too much law for me – and besides, just considering what national law system to use is dizzying for me!
I was just sitting here working on my intellectual property chapter and squeezing in a few Poster theories and thought “You know, you really should have thought about adding a chapter on MMORPGs as medium – with a touch of technological determinism! But you’re way too late in considering that now!”. But now I just want to finish this sucker and start working on an outline for a doctorate! Yay!!! Finally something ‘goal like’ in sight! Finally something to fight for!! Woo hoo!!! I’m really having an adrenalin kick here!!! ;)
A fresh look at learning and games
“The researchers in HP’s Bristol, England, office came up with a location-aware game that allows visitors to the Tower of London to help virtual prisoners escape.”
What fun!!! I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I find myself in tourist situations, there’s just so much that I want to absorb and learn, yet walking around just observing and listening to guides and reading becomes tiresome after a few hours! But what if I truely could experience these places and their history? The Mercury News Interactive reports:
“The game, developed by the Mediascapes research team at HP Labs and staff at the Tower of London, uses HP iPAQ handheld devices and location sensors including GPS. Digital files containing voices, images, music and clues are placed in specific locations using the HP Labs Mediascape authoring toolkit.
As players move into a location in the Tower and its grounds, the appropriate digital file is triggered on their iPAQ devices. This allows players to meet historical prisoners in the Tower, such as Guy Fawkes and Anne Boleyn, one of Henry VIII’s wives. Even the Tower’s Yeomen Warders, nicknamed Beefeaters, become part of the game as players try to help historical figures escape.”
‘Protectors’ an independent player group?
Deadlines are truely a wonderful thing! Because otherwise I’m certain nothing would ever get published! I’ve currently got 4 chapters up and running on the screen because I’ve figured out that’s the best way for me to work, it helps me see the flow of my arguments – and it also messes things up all the freakin time! I’m so sick and tired of second guessing all my statements – I just wanna get this over with already, so I can move on! But sometimes I just have to face the fact that I’ve overlooked some crucial, fundamental and important facts! It’s devastating finding these things so late in the process that tears seem to flow constantly (so glad I’m a woman) and I’m amazed I still have hair on my head as pulling them seems to satisfy my bursts of anger! Reasonable arguments like I shouldn’t care so much and I should stop overthinking things just refuses to hit home with me! Argh! So…after revealing my psychological and personal breakdown let me present you with my current dilemma!
Shooter!
How cool is this?!!! Shooter is an art project based on a video and pictures of players at private LAN parties organised by the artists Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann. Vigourating!!!
The abstract:
The two-part work “Shooter” by the artist duo Geissler and Sann consists of a video and photo documentation of LAN parties organised by the artists in their studio over a period of a year and a half. Both the video sequences and the photo documentations show the players front-on against a neutral background from a constant camera angle.
The video, on show at the exhibition, observes the players during a fight scene, i.e. while they are killing or getting killed in the virtual world of the network while sitting in the same room as their adversaries. The video shows moments of intense concentration of a temporary tension characterised by inner drama. According to the artists, “The viewer … witnesses a life-and-death game with no consequences”.
“Shooter” presents a test set-up with which to analyse the human relation to real and virtual spaces and the associated gestures and facial expressions. At the same time, the artists question the function of the real body and the game of identities with reference to New Technologies.
The specially installed web site features a documentation and a guest book in which the portrayed players can leave their comments.
(Silke Albrecht)
Found at Game Scenes (which I don’t have time to investigate further at the moment, but definitely on top of my ‘to do’ list!)
South Korean gaming culture
The New York Times has an interesting piece on the gaming culture in South Korea. It’s so well written and balanced that it just deserves a mention here!
Seth Schiesel really makes an effort in understanding why pc gaming is such a vital part of Korean culture. Several interesting points, really.
Lee Chung Gi, owner of the Intercool bang, said: “It’s impossible for students in any country to study all the time, so they are looking for interesting things to do together. In America they have lots of fields and grass and outdoor space. They have lots of room to play soccer and baseball and other sports. We don’t have that here. Here, there are very few places for young people to go and very little for them to do, so they found PC games, and it’s their way to spend time together and relax.”
Which reminded me of Henry Jenkins’ “Complete Freedom of Movement”.
He also mentions the Korean student work culture and how parents are encouraging their kids to play to ease the stress of expectations. But he doesn’t deny that there is a problem with gaming addiction as well.
Great lazy Sunday reading and there’s even a multimedia presentation! And you just have to love the fact that they have loveseats in PcBangs, like in this picture! I’ve got to take a tour of Internet Cafés here in Bergen to see if anything similar exists here!
Brought to my attention by fascinating blogger Alice in Wonderland.
Sometimes…things just get way out of hand!
I absolutely adored the WoW South Park episode! There was just too much laughter in that episode and so many things to pick up on! I even had to smile at the GTA style carjacking by Stan’s dad, but this, however does not make it into the wiki on the episode! Oh yeah! That’s right! They’ve got it all! The inconsistencies, the goofs, the ‘who has what’ armour!
Well…at least all the facts are recorded! But jeez! Talk about information overflow!!
“Trailers for this episode show Stan and Kyle in what appears t be the Undercity, right after Kenny is killed. In the airing of the show, they were in Goldshire”
Oh…I was wrong…the carjacking is listed!
Although…comments like “Crushing an enemy’s head into a bloody pulp as depicted in the final fight is impossible in the game” can be useful to worried parents? If they’re too frightened to ask their children, they can always look it up in Wikipedia?
South Park World of Warcraft
Most of us have already seen it…but it just desserves your attention if you haven’t yet! You really don’t have to be a WoW player to understand the humour in this! I was in stitches! And what a social comment!!! Enjoy!
Remember What The Dormouse Said 