I don’t think I’ve had a more wrong conception of something in all my life! Urgh…I think I’ll leave the confessions of my ignorance for a more mentally stable day, but let me put it this way…I adamantly argued that leetspeak came about from World of Warcraft, last night! Terribly embarrassing – at some point I need to acknowledge the fact that I don’t know what I’m talking about!
So I took the advice of some much smarter people and wikipediad (huh…can I do the noun thing here, like we do with Googled?) leetspeak! And OMFG! I’m not even sure I want to know all this! It’s just too much!
I much rather preferred my own definition that leetspeak was a complete language for elite gamers using numbers and letters, that wanted to communicate with hordes (or whatever) but were restricted with language difficulties. I suppose that’s what it is, but I’m still not comfortable saying that acronyms such as ROTFL, WTF, AFK and words such as nerf and w00t are leetspeak. I know these acronyms and a few words, but I’m sure as hell not qualified for leetspeak! There has to be another definition. Wikipedia mentions AOL speak, which I’m obviously not comfortable with. I want to say MMORPG chatting language, but that’s just nonsense as well.
I think I’m just going to have to teach myself 1337, I just have no choice! Which will definately gain som nerd points but I’m wondering if it will decrease the snob points (will come back to this)!

What a great way to help a weaping and healing city! It’s pretty much a donation from Intel Corp., Tropos Networks Inc. and Pronto Networks. The amusing thing is that this has been tried before, but legislation and telephone companies have stopped it from happening!

Mayor Ray Nagin has fought for this and I’m glad he won!

Hmmmm…you know….I think I’m almost envious of New Orleans now!!!

So the answers are in on last week’s question at Gamasutra about in-game advertising. I have to say, this ‘question of the week’ initiative is great! It’s wonderful reading what those working in the industry think on such matters!
Nothing really suprised me, though! Most agree that in-game advertising is going to grow but are weary of the consequences and warn that gamers might repel.
Lately I’ve had an amusing time in my head thinking up wacky ideas for advertising and gameplay in sci-fi and D&D worlds. Yes…seriously….once again I’ve found a past time that just makes me break down in cramps of laughter in the middle of the street!

Of all the responses, I have to say I enjoyed Jonathan Hicks’ (Novalogic) the most:

• “Current business models used by film and radio will, I expect, be the initial push for in game advertising. However, most gamers, including myself, would find these blatant advertising attempts in a game offensive and pretty cheesy. The best models that I imagine will arise will be a good mixture of product to game ambience and environment. Examples are advertisements like car company related ads on the walls of the tracks and on the cars in racing games, hip hop clothing and funky sunglasses for titles like Grand Theft Auto…games that are sci-fi-based might use advertising from companies that want to make a statement that they will be successful in the future that these sci-fi titles represent. “

I couldn’t agree more! There’s a way to do this and there’s a way not to do this! I think advertising companies should employ game designers or at least gamers who know what this is all about. And I honestly think that the way to go is to integrate into the game play! And this doesn’t have to be the same awfullness that we encounter on our tv’s…this can be done with class and imagination! Don’t invade the game space, just join it! I’m not making myself clear here, am I? I’m saying that advertisers should work with game designers on creating an in-game product! We can’t sell-out like television did, but let’s face it…that advertising money would be great for the industry…specially MMOs that have consistant maintenance and customer support to take care of…not to mention upgrades. It all becomes too expensive for developers and publishers.

Another thought I’ve had, which is probably incredibly ludicrous, but why are there no entertainment centers in game? I mean…wouldn’t it be great to go with your WoW friends and watch WoW Machinima together? An entrance fee and regular shows. Save you the tedious task of downloading and, I don’t know…wouldn’t it enhance the community spirit if you can watch a movie in character with your in-game friends? And well…if that’s popular…you might wanna think about other stuff to show and maybe a little advertisements can be posted within these entertainment centers?

I’m just letting my thoughts drift here…..which I think exemplifies that the possibilities are endless. I’m not necessarily for in-game advertising but I refuse to be against it as well. Gamers should be able to purchase games without being terrified of what advertisements they’re paying for. The enjoyment of the game should be preserved at all costs! But there’s really a lot of fun that can be had with advertising as well! So when you see me all by myself in hysterics…you’ll know that I just came up with another idea!!! ;)

The recent release of The Movies game was spawned some absolutely fabulous short movies (because we can’t really call them Machinima, can we?).
But I was specially touched by Koulamata’s The French Democracy. It’s a great movie about the recent riots in France. What a brilliant way of getting your point across! But as Water Cooler Games reports, it is rather amusing seeing the American flag hanging around everywhere.
I really need to get my hands on this game.
I’m wondering what the gameplay is about? What is it really that makes this a game?
Will ofcourse have to have a good look at the property rights issue here, as well! But I’ve been up all night and the old braincells aren’t working as they should, Clickable Culture is ofcourse already on the case!!
I’m sitting here also pondering on what restrictions there might be, there are bound to be many, but is it possible to burn the American flag for example?

This looks great! And I’m wondering how on earth N. Katherine Hayles has escaped my attention! My Mother Was a Computer looks like an incredibly exciting book. And her former, How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics looks amazing as well!

Atari, Bioware and West Nottinghamshire College have teamed up and created an educational gaming environment using ‘Neverwinter Nights’.

“They prototyped a scenario that allowed learners to interact in a fantasy setting involving team working and problem solving situations. The prototype was designed to be used for reinforcement and evidence generation in a ‘fun’ environment.

They’ve accomplished amazing results and they’ve won the 2004/05 Becta Beacon Award for The Effective Use of Information Learning Technology to Enhance Teaching and Support Learning (jeez…that was a mouthfull).

Great stuff! It’s lovely to see education taking games seriously. The game was designed (or re-designed) to map all of the Edexcel Key Skill evidence requirements and they saw an increase of students passed from 90% to 100%.

After some digging after reading the initial article that caught my attention, this all seems to be rather old news that has passed me by. I suppose the news of today is that it is now going to be offered to other educational institutions. I wonder what the market value of a game like this is?

A big thank you to Incredible Mr. Hove for the info!

Isn’t that an interesting ratio? So we can say that free casual online games are just as likely to attract women as men…pretty interesting! I’m wondering why. Does this mean that women are discouraged by the seriousness of games? Or that they just don’t see the point of spending money on games?
These are numbers that have come out of a report by Nielsen. The report also notes that the gaming demographic is expanding to include more mature males with reasonable incomes (what a shock!).
They note that MMOs are becoming more popular and gamers are using more of their tv time to play games, concluding that advertiser should seriously start considering MMOs as an advertising forum to reach these demographics.

Gamasutra and BusinessWeek have more indept articles on the report. I’m blogging on borrowed internet time so I’m still blog rushing (he he..can I say that?). I’m still unconnected at home and I’m seriously considering showing Telenor a big fat middle finger!

This advertising in MMO’s discussion is just popping up everywhere at the moment! I don’t know if this is because I’ve become more attentive to the subject or because it really is a hot topic at the moment. Anyways…thought I’d just put some focus on Clickable Culture’s post which discusses the comments “Gamers will generally accept ads in games – as long as they fit into the gaming experience” and “ads make games more realistic”. Extremely interesting…for are we really saying that games are unrealistic without advertising? It’s definately a debateable topic.
Also, Gamasutra’s got a Postcard from Rich Vogel (Stars Wars Galaxy, Ultima Online) “How to Manage a Large-Scale Online Gaming Community”. And there’s a paragraph about Viral MMO Marketing which was…umh…informative…yet not?
Just wanted to post these two links. I’m spending Friday night at my parent’s because my internett is down…and well…seems I couldn’t manage weekend life without being connected! Troubling, I know…but I can’t help myself!! Anyways…concentration is a bit low, but will get back to this another day with more focus.
I will however mention that at the First Tuesday seminar last month I asked Funcom’s Jørgen Tharaldsen whether they consider using advertising in Age of Conan as they do in Anarchy Online and I dare say he snickered at me. And if memory serves me right he mentioned that Age of Conan was a fantasy world and therefore the possibilities weren’t as evident, but he also mentioned that he wouldn’t rule it out. Hmmmmm…..

Anyone interested in gaming news knows about the ever annoying lawyer, Jack Thompson and his lawsuit in Alabama. I’m not going to bother recapping or explaining him…but!! Just thought I’d mention that he’s now had his temporary privilege to practice law in Alabama revoked!

This week’s issue of The Escapist is dedicated to Generation G, people brought up on gaming. Allen Varney writes about gaming and parenting. It’s an interesting collection of interviews discussing how ‘grown up’ gamers are playing with their children and how they’re finding it useful for quality time, communication and learning. I found the article quite sweet and charming. True gamers are growing up and reproducing and they’re not giving up their passion for gaming, instead they’re encouraging it in their home and within the families.
I think the key issue here is to be involved with the gaming enjoyment, to take the time to play with your kids and to be aware of how gaming can be used as a learning tool. But I do however feel quite weary of such overly optimistic articles. This is not to be mistaken with just encouraging game play in the family but not participating yourself – because they’re not the same thing.
I’m DEFINATELY not saying that games are bad for you. I’m just saying, these articles written by games enthusiasts can be slightly overoptimistic and often objectivity is extremely hard to find. It’s good to read such positive experiences once in a while, certainly and that’s why I throughly enjoy reading The Escapist, I just find the authors a bit blinded by their own passion. It’s quite funny actually, because whether it’s written academically or journalisticly (oh dear…is that a word?), most gaming articles tend to be extremely enthusiastic about games with extremely little criticism, if the author is a gamer, that is. If the author has never touched a game, the text is just filled with negativety and condemnation of cultural hell. I’m missing something here. Studying MMORPGs has often led me to this problem, most of what I’m reading academically, seems like gaming journals where the writers are just informing you of what a fairytale world they’ve encountered. If there actually is any criticism it’s because the game producers are accused of enforcing cruel dictatorship. I’m mildly exaggerating here, but it definately is how I feel at times.
It seems like there’s two unified fronts gamers vs non-gamers. Games are good for you vs games are poison to our society.