I’m sitting here trying to write another summary of Aesthetics of Play, but in Norwegian…and I’ve honestly never been more confused! First of all, I’m not sure I understand the language of Computer Game Studies (even that is a questionable choice of words) and then trying to find the Norwegian words? I’m not even sure we have a Norwegian word for mimetic…does anyone know? Do we? And then there’s the relative easy words like Game Space, which I honestly don’t feel the direct translation encompasses. But then I suppose this is what academia is all about, language. Which I think kinda reinforces the importance of looking at digital games in Norwegian academics. And I suppose I’m annoyed with myself for taking the easy way out and writing my thesis in English (if it ever actually does get written, ofcourse)! Sorry, I’m just venting out my frustration here. I just hate the feeling of having so much I want to discuss, but not being able to communicate my thoughts because I STILL haven’t figured out the language!

I just love this!!! Stay Free! has an article making fun of the law on public performances of copyrighted works. Carrie McLaren has written an entertaining letter asking for permission to sing happy birthday on her father’s 75th birthday. Nothing to do with gaming, I know, but I just love these humorous outcries about the ludicrousness of our patent conrolled society.

Ok…lets see if I can get this over with. I’m still not sure if I understand exactly what was going on this weekend…but let me give it my best shot! I’m not exactly sure how to sum it all up. I suppose the conference was about the different ways in which to study games, in particular how to study the play of games.
Espen Aarseth started it all with a bang, questioning what computer games really are. With the usual components such as, games not being fiction but fiction being a part of games, so we’re not playing a story. And that computers are the perfect simulator platform for games, but there’s trouble behind such a statement as well, what is simulation and what is computing? That game aesthetics is not visual, it is the action of play. He also presented a great typology of player behavior, which I fell in love with…so will blog some more about this at a later time. Definately a presentation that opened up the theme of the conference.
But where to start from here? Argh…this is the hardest summary I’ve ever written.
World of Warcraft was a reoccuring theme. Mattias Ljungström had an interesting presentation about architecture in WoW and how it influences player behavior. It was such a ‘OMG! Ofcourse!!” presentation. Other WoW stuff was Tanya Krzywinska’s presentation on myth in WoW and Henry Lowood’s machinima presentation was of course sexy and great. With Tristan Pope’s “Not Just Another Love Story” leading the way. There has aperantly been some controversy on this film as it contained ‘adult’ content, but the artist himself maintains that he’s only used the pixels that are already available in the game, which is true! Yet another thing I could write about for hours, but this is only a summary. His whole presentation got me thinking, however, about the contention that ‘sex only becomes an issue when gamers get bored’ (I’m sorry…I still haven’t figured out where I read this, will continue the search). So I’m thinking, if you want gamers to become creative in their own gameplay and use the game as a media, there should be an element of idleness designed into it.
Phew, I haven’t even covered half the event so far! I’m still not sure I understand everything completely, but this is what I got out of it. I’ll get back to writing some more tomorrow and see if I can’t be a little bit more summary oriented then.
But I need to dash for a Monday night party now – I know, it’s official! I’m such a student and I will never ever learn!!!

Just wanted to mention that University of Bergen has a gaming radio show podcast. Quite entertaining actually! Recommended!

Unfortunately I missed the opening of Game Dump on Friday for various reasons. In relation to this I also managed to utter a sentence that I really wanted to share with you: “Urgh! My friends are such nerds, they’re no gamers!”. Yes…these words actually parted from my lips, what on earth has happened to me?
Anyways…I still haven’t had a chance to go and I’m sooooo looking forward to it!!!
On that note, I was blown away by Daniel Pargman, Simon Giddin and Jakob Senneby’s “Problematizing production- Economy and value creation in Second Life”, which was the last presentation at Aesthetics of Play (I will report on this later, but expert blogger Jill Walker has a summary going on, ALREADY!). They introduced this amazing project, Objects of Virtual Desire! They’re actually taking things that are designed in Second Life and making them. Also attaching the stories behind the objects and designers! Absolutely amazing!

I promise to come back with more info about this absolutely amazing conference!! But a hangover (SERIOUSLY! Will I ever learn?!), meeting with advisor tomorrow, a general feeling of “OMG! What was I part of this weekend? Do I understand what’s going on?” and an overhanging feeling of responsibility to report on this at Dagbladet’s spillblogg (yes…the gaming press here in Norway were seduced by some virtual sex bomb that invited them to play the new XBox this weekend and haven’t reported about ANYTHING!) are all contributing to a slight delay!

I will however mention a conversation I had with my lovely conference dinner neighbours, we discussed the title “Aesthetics of Play” – not aesthetics in computer games, but Aesthetics of Play, an excellent title and I think it sums up exactly what was going on! For some bizarre reason, I hadn’t thought about that before.

I mentioned this film to so many at the conferance this weekend that I thought I might post this again. It’s a film about this poor guy who gets hypnotised while playing a ‘Living Dead’ game and wakes up to a grusome nightmare! It’s such a cruel thing to do to someone, but the end is so revealing about human enjoyment of fear!! It’s amazing!

So enjoy!!!

Yep! Just when I was complaining that there isn’t enough initiative in Norway to focus on the gaming industry…along comes Nordic Game Potential. Of course it’s all of us Nordics…but a start!! I hope Norway will be properly represented!!! Would love to go…but I’ll have to struggle a bit with my thesis writing conscience on this one…as it has absolutely nothing to do with my academic…uhm…work and just my basic interest in promoting the industry in Norway.

AoP’s coming up tomorrow…and I know that I won’t be able to gag that ridiculous loud mouth of mine. I didn’t manage it on the First Tuesday event, and I doubt that I’ll be able to with two whole days of presentations and they’re mostly on MMORPGs as well. So my question is this…saying MMORPG is quite devestating, and when you’re kinda nervous and uncertain if your question is going to burry you in the deep dark waters of the ‘dumb souls of academia’, it’s very hard saying ‘Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games’, so what should I be saying? I’ve not heard that many people actually ‘talking’ about these games…so I’m so unsure. But I have heard Massive RPGs…is this acceptable? Or is it MMOs? Or should we just say MUDs, but that’s not right! Oh hell…I’ll just take my que from the smart people giving the presentations, or maybe I’ll manage to just shut up and absorb? But if you know the answer, you may also know what is correct of these two: ‘an MMORPG’ or ‘a MMORPG’ – I feel like everyone writes differently.
Anyways…had myself a little chuckle while reading my daily Game Politics today! They have a piece on OLGAnon – Online Gamers Anonymous, which is a site for people who find themselves addicted to MMORPGs (ooooh…they write MMOs….hmmm), I’ll write some more about this later. I chuckled because of all the people in the world, they brought out a Norwegian’s comments to exemplify what addicts were struggling with: “I have a problem. I am 24 years old, from Norway, and a WoW addict”. It’s a sad story, really…and I feel for the bugger. But I just had to laugh when I saw that a Norwegian addict has now made the World (well…American) cyber press! I know, I’m tragic…but at least I have a lot of laughter in my life!!

Thanks to my newfound blogger community here at the institute, I’ve been informed of a presentation conference here in Bergen, TOMORROW!! It’s a First Tuesday initiative. I’m so incredibly ashamed that I did not know of this sooner! And although I know that the Norwegian IGDA chapter is based in Oslo, I’m really annoyed that being a member there didn’t inform me of this essential get-together! Of course genious Funcom will be there, along with a few interesting speakers from the UK who can teach us a lot about funding and the industry! I’m so thankful that I learned about this now, and not the day after!!! After all, I am supposed to be interested in expanding the computer game industry here in Norway, so why the hell did I not learn of this sooner!!! I feel like such an ignorant uninformed git! But I also can’t wait to go! Too bad it’s happening at a time that my industry confidence is at an all time low and I feel like a dumb blonde wannabe, so my blossoming zealous networking nature won’t be present when it actually should be! DARN!

Terra Nova has an interesting debate going on the WoW virus and how we can learn more about the spread of disease and the panic that follows, by studying it. They question whether gameplay can be trusted for such studies as many WoW players were having fun spreading the virus and basically bringing this into the play element. So therefore these smart academics are wondering what has to go into the game design for such studies to be relevant. It’s an intriguing subject, and I’m sure it’s been covered extensively at Ludium, but I just haven’t gotten around to reading the conclusions there yet.
On a more personal note, discussions like this are just pure gold for such a lost academic soul as myself. I’m starting to get a much clearer picture of why defining gameplay and gamedesign is so important for understanding these virtual worlds. The panic light is however flashing franticly in my mind because I fear that those painful months of ignoring a ‘real’ life and playing tso are wasted cause I’ve conducted my research on such a completely wrong angle. What is this mess that I’ve tangled myself into?