Category Archives: ME

What I’ve learned – Part 1

6 October 2006

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I’m wrapping up my typology of TSO players and intellectual property rights chapters this weekend and I’m getting kind of sentimental and sad about ending a chapter in my life also – and all my…ehm…work being visible on paper. I could have easily finished this sucker a year ago, but then I would have missed out on a few thoughts and new insights. But I suppose that also has contributed to my low self esteem and the constant second guessing of my thoughts, memories, sentences, conclusions, understandings, sanity and intelligence. So I’m not recomending the extra year, far from it, but I’m just saying that I’m glad I took it. I’ve had such a great time, learning so incredibly much – both relevant and irrelevant.

One thing that I absolutely adore and despise about Media Studies is that it encompasses so incredibly much! Back in my bachelor days I never quite got into the spirit of ‘reading’ film – I mean, sure! I loved reaching for hidden meanings and mis-en-scene and – well, to be honest I’m getting bored just writing about it now, so maybe ‘love’ is too strong a word here. Two semesters of film classes was quite enough for me. Anyways…I was lucky and privileged to have Tiziana Terranova introduce me to…ehm…I think we called it Cyberculture, back then (1997-2000) – which blew my mind and woke my desire to learn more! I remember becoming a huge Baudrillard and Foucault fan and discussing hyperreality with passion at the local pub. Ooooh! I’m about to give you my life story here aren’t I? I suppose my point is that I come from a Media Studies background, a part of the Cultural Studies movement (?). On paper I can supposedly ‘read’ film, pictures, commercials and understand media politics (hahahahaha!) and well at least discuss the issues of identity in media and semiotics.

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Basshunter strikes again

25 September 2006

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This time it’s a song about gaming. Pretty much singing that they’re sitting there in ‘venten’ (which I think is an abreviation for ventrilo) and playing a little computer games (interesting to think that the direct translation would be ‘playing data)!

Update: Oops! I was wrong! He’s actually singing about playing DotA – Defense of the Ancients.

It’s, you know, something to blog about without having to write too much;)! Interesting, at least!

Thanks, i1277!

Ahhh…destiny!

25 August 2006

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I’ve never ever regretted my decision to start back at university and write about virtual gaming worlds. I mean…I started my Masters degree because I wanted to study and research virtual worlds – the actual degree is just a perk! Hmmm…does that make me a nerd? Never thought it would take me this long, however!! So much information to process!! I have, however, regretted many many many times on The Sims Online! But in hindsight, I feel it’s good to have knowledge and insight on what doesn’t work! But…you know I’m babling! Oh hell! It’s my blog!

Anyways…it’s been one of the few choices in my life that’s made me truely happy! One thing that’s always annoyed me, however, is that I could never seem to find the courage and strength to write papers for conferences so I could participate! So many fabulous debates! I’ve been saying for the past year that if I won the lottery I would just travel around going to all these conferences and meeting all these super brilliant minds!!

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"Making Seeds Not Forests"

7 August 2006

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I’ve been a fan of The Long Now Foundation ever since I was introduced to it! For those who don’t know:

“The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and promote “slower/better” thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.”

They also host a series of seminars which are now available through podcast (yay!). Today I finally got around to listening to the Brian Eno and Will Wright seminar. What an inspirational force!! The combination of Brian Eno’s generative music (he mentions Wind Chimes as an example!!) and Will Wright’s Spore was just enlightening, amusing and extremely well…cozy, actually! At the end I started daydreaming about having them both around for dinner to discuss some more!
They’re attitude about their creations is pretty much summed up with Brian Eno’s “We make the seeds not the forest” comment. They were both really charming about their fascination of what they could learn from their fans. Eno has a great story about the re-release of “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” and how the record company came up with the unoriginal idea of adding some remixes. Apparently, David Byrne came up with the idea to instead make some content available for fans to remix themselves, which proved to be a big success! Yay! Ofcourse it would have been much better to have a visual handy when Will Wright was talking about Spore, but his words and mind are intoxicating nonetheless! Interesting to hear that he actually makes’real life’ models of his worlds! I’ve always felt really bad about knocking The Sims Online, because I truely am a Will Wright fan! But where The Sims gave the ‘player’ more creative freedom, The Sims Online did not. And I’m sure that has more to do with something he talks about here – simplistic and few rules. The Sims Online has way too many rules that just leave too little freedom for ‘fun’ – whereas The Sims, does not.
There was just so much interesting going on at this seminar – and I was busy chopping up lunch for the office while listening through it – so I couldn’t take any notes. Hearing Eno and Wright’s discussion on the verb ‘play’ was a true adrenaline booster! I only wish they could’ve gone on to discuss some more! There’s loads more worth mentioning like the creation of stories and narratives – and painting!!!
Personally I’m filled with positive adrenaline juices that have eluded me for some time now. Instead of treading myself more deeply into the dark depressive cold swamp and focusing all my energy in ALL the wrong places I’m starting to glimpse a path to dry land! Yay!!!

PS
Fredrik!!! I think you’d really enjoy John Rendon’s ‘Long-term Policy to Make the War on Terror Short’ – just listened to it and I was moved! Think you’d enjoy it!

Help!!!

2 August 2006

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Urgh! I’m stuck!! What’s the name of that little keychain electronic pet thing that we carried around in the nineties?!!! The name is completely eluding me! Help!
The oracles on my messenger are offline (idiots with a real life) and I’m desperately trying to finish off a thought before I loose it!!! Argh! The frustrations of not being an encyclopedia!

Spore…sigh!

23 May 2006

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This game is just starting to sound more and more fabulous!! I’ve just listened to a podcast from the GDC 06 of Caryl Shaw’s (Producer, Maxis) talk about “Building Community Around Pollinated Content in Spore” and I’m in complete awe! I almost feel guilty for criticising The Sims Online, but I’m sure anyone would agree with me there. And I almost think they’re kind for keeping the game going as I’m sure there are only a couple of thousand players (huh…need to check up on that) since those that still are there are still passionate about it.

Keywords for the talk: technology, content, community; generative content; small file sizes; “bragging rights”, flickr inspired tagging; stories behind the objects; massively solo player game

I’m truely pumped!!

Also check out Will Wright’s talk with BBC Technology about “User-generated future of gaming”. At one point they actually talk about letting avatars roam through different gaming spaces – interesting!!

An Unreal Love Story

27 April 2006

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I’ve had an extremely rotten day, it’s not getting any better and I’m starting to suspect that tomorrow is just going to be worse!

So I was very pleased when I came across this very bizarre Machinima film at Kotaku. I completely forgot what a disgustingly miserable day I was having and actually smile!! So hope you do as well! Kotaku has an interesting description “Hair meets Red vs. Blue”!

I think it’s SFW – definately if you have the sound off otherwise maybe 2 sec of crudeness!

Games are the democratization of fiction!

18 April 2006

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Awwww…aren’t those words just vigorating? They’re not my own, ofcourse, it’s Tappan King who’s uttered them to Greg Costikyan. It’s so revolutionary, isn’t it?! Games are setting fiction free to the people!

“the Artist creates, the audience consumes. Games, contrariwise, allow individual players to participate in the creation of their fictional experience. The developers still shape and constrain that experience, to be sure, but there is no experience without the active engagement of the player; the player may well do something with the construct that the developers had not anticipated; and the ultimate experience is a collaboration in which both sides participate, not something handed down from On High by the Great Artiste. It is, in other words, the antithesis of aristocratic; games are a way for everyman to participate in creating his or her own narrative experience. Games are a democratic artform for a democratic age.”

But alas, I’m not ready to say that ‘play’ is fiction or that playing fiction is democratic and nonlinear. It’s just a nice and powerful notion. I suppose I fell for this completely because it is right at the core of my arguments on MMORPGs. There is a sense and a feeling of democracy, but come right down to it, it’s all an illusion. One could maybe compare it to the illusion of democracy in Iraq! Or the freedom to say whatever you want in your e-mails!

But, then again, this is not really what he’s saying either, is it? Democratization of fiction! We’re creating fictions that people can interact with. But we’re not exactly creating a collaborative art form are we? Or are we?

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Venting thoughts!

14 April 2006

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Otherwise my Easter has been spent lying on the couch ignoring social circles because ‘I’ve got so much work to do’ and watching tv and letting my eyes wander warily over to my computer with a passionate hatred!

I’ve kinda gotten myself into a sticky situation, which I’m either overthinking or I just need to drop it all together. Let me share it with you! I’m trying to explain the attachment we feel to our virtual assets in MMORPGs and I thought I’d found the perfect example. Now, let me point out that I want to go on to explain the distrust of the coding authorities (excellent word, Castronova!) to rectify such situations. So let me just vent out here:
Madelaine, a player in The Sims Online (TSO) loves to build houses! One time she had spent a lot of time, love and effort on a house which was fabulous! A friend of hers was constantly hassling her with wishes to buy it. Madelaine was flattered and in the end gave in! A few days later Madelaine came to me quite distraught. She had just found out that her friend had copied the house from Alphaville to Blazing Falls (another virtual city in TSO) and was passing it off as her own design. Madelaine was quite distraught, and rightly so in my opinion. So this is where I get into trouble! I don’t understand Intellectual Property Law! I thought this was a perfect example of that, and the more I think about it, the more I think it has to do with copyright.

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