Machinima day

21 April 2007

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I’ve been toying around with an idea for months now, not actually getting anywhere – but it’s still there on my list of priorities.

I want to rent a cinema theater for a day and show Machinima films. A kind of mini-Machinima festival. My idea is to make it as commercial as possible so that people who aren’t avid gamers will be interested in attending as well.

I’ve decided that this is possible if I can organize machinima films in forms of genre. Drama – action – horror – a.s.o. I know! It’s a headache. But I think if I separate the films from the games, people might be more open. The whole point is to give an introduction to the magnificence that can come out of user-generated content. And of course the relevant fact that games are being used as a medium to express something.

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Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments

21 April 2007

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Ooooh! GameSpy’s got a list going of the Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments! And they’ve even included the clips – just in the wonderful way we’ve come to know GameSpy as excellent game journalists!

I’m not such a big fan of lists – don’t ask me why – I’m just not! But presented this way is just wonderful! Specially for me who hasn’t played all these games! Pure joy!

Link

Espen Aarseth’s coming to town!

21 April 2007

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Yay!!!

Bergen Media By is organizing a social event on Wednesday for the local media industry and they’ve invited Espen Aarseth to speak. The title of his talk is “The Games Industry – skills needed (kompetansebehov) and trends”.

I’m still trying to define what skills I have to contribute to the industry – do I in fact have any? I’m feeling a tad lost in the dark hoping that I’m going to stumble on to some job description that just screams Linn! So these events are truly important to me and I’m so glad they’re organizing them. And it’s so lovely seeing Bergen involving itself!

Networking, networking, networking! One should’ve thought I had the knack of it now, but I still have trouble selling myself. I feel like such a desperate geek and wish I could just lean back, nod my head knowingly and just casually say “You know, you should hire me because I could do this and that and thingamabob for you” and then completely relaxed just hand them one of my flickr cards with a little wink and a “give me call”. I sometimes blame a university education for my insecurities, because they, at least my department, don’t exactly scream to the world “look at all the incredible wonderful stuff our students are doing”! Instead we just walk around feeling like disturbances in the faculty’s research time. I still feel the pain I got when I realised that there was a gaming conference going on at my department without anyone telling me about it. Meeting someone who had finished his thesis over a year ago and being asked “Why weren’t you upstairs? I was sure you’d be there!” – was just devastating!

But where are my manners? I shouldn’t be pouring my hurt feelings onto this blog! I should be looking ahead and beyond into the bright glowing future! I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that I actually do know a few things. And I’m loving the fact that I can now write articles because I have a degree that says “Linn knows what she’s talking about” that gives me the right to well…write! Hehe! It’s a nice feeling!

So – Wednesday! Espen Aarseth! I’ll be there! Digital cinema, Its Learning and Bergen in the Movies (Varg Veum) are also on the agenda. Looks to be an inspiring night!

Virtual World Studies

21 April 2007

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I’ve been meaning to write this blog post for about a year now, but for some reason I never got around to it. The idea resurrected after a conversation with a dear friend, where I was reminded of my frustrations when writing my thesis. I was dangling my feet in so many waters that it was no wonder I had a hard time keeping my head above water, and looking back I’m kinda annoyed that nobody bothered telling me that I didn’t have to learn to swim in each water, I just needed to focus on being a good swimmer in one water. Urgh – me and analogies – not a good combo, huh? Either way, I wish I could have just been reminded that it was JUST a Media Studies Masters thesis – I didn’t have to completely understand the law, psychology, sociology, anthropology, narratology and ALL the theoretical approaches to analysing virtual worlds. I remember sometimes thinking – “why didn’t I just focus on a film of some sort?!” – but I didn’t, because this is the world that fascinates me, this is the world that intrigues me. And I still think it is of the utmost relevance to study the evolution of these worlds.

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Second Life and the business world

15 April 2007

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First Tuesday has a branch in Bergen and they’ve organised a talk about Second Life on Tuesday. Imagine my excitement! It seems like the talk is based on discussing whether this virtual world is worth exploring for local businesses. My thought is: “Give me one good reason why not!”

Speakers will be IBM Sales Director, Bjørn Roksvold, the Project Manager of Design Containers Second Life, Ela Oliva and Severin Roald from Burson-Marsteller (this guy intrigues me, because his title is “Digital Media Champion” – which is a completely new word in my dictionary – I’m keen to learn what that’s all about).

Personally, I feel that the local businesses in Bergen don’t really have a sufficient web presence. It’s like they want people to have a hard time of finding out what they’re about, which has to be destructive on so many levels – or have I missed something here? I think it would be lovely for them all to get more involved with Second Life.

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"Synthetic Worlds and Public Policy"

22 March 2007

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Ludium II at Indiana University will focus on what ‘synthetic worlds and public policy’ this year.Great!

I hope that a good and healthy array of people will be present. I, for example, would like to see some public policy enforcers present – see what they have to say on the subject. These are difficult questions – and the more diversity discussing them – the more I think they can come up with an adequate proposal. I cannot stress enough how dangerous it is to bring ‘actual’ laws into gaming worlds – and yet I do believe avatars have rights too. But should it be controlled by consumer laws?
I think it is in the best interests of the synthetic world makers to have adequate laws and procedures – but there are limits to the responsibilities that can be enforced on them. I also think that in such debates you cannot dismiss the dilemma of defining what is a gaming world and what is a virtual (synthetic) world.Either way, it looks like Castronova and his bunch have created a great Ludium in the best possible form this year again!

Ludium II will bring together experts on virtual worlds from academia, industry, and government to play a live-action political game leading to an extremely serious, timely, and important contribution: a consensus Platform of 10 Statements answering the question “What policies should real world governments have with regards to synthetic worlds?” The hope is that this Platform will provide answers when legislatures and administrators wonder what to do in response to the critical public issues that will be raised by these unique social technologies.

Good luck!!!

Bogost finds the words

19 March 2007

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Just stopping by to share this amazing quote by Bogost in Gamasutra’s ‘Are Games Art? “Here we go again.”

“Film can be used for deeply charged emotional expression, or it can be used to show you how to use the oxygen mask in case of cabin depressurization. If video games are indeed a medium, then they too will speak on different registers. “If you look at the world of ‘serious games,’ a lot of those titles are much closer to the airline safety video than to ‘Citizen Kane,'”Bogost adds. “And like film or TV or painting, there will be different modes of video game craft. There will be pop-art games and self-referential postmodern games and exploitative games and games made solely to cash in on intellectual property like Sponge Bob.”

Naw – I haven’t actually read it – but found the quote at Water Cooler Games and I’ve been thinking about it all day! So much so that I’m getting very distracted from work. But I suppose I knew that would happen eventually!

Women game bloggers

18 March 2007

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Every now and then a ‘battle of the sexes’ discussion comes up in the gaming blogosphere which always stirs up a loud debate. Personally I think these debates can be healthy because I’m always introduced to new voices, which I enjoy. I may be getting old because I really don’t get provoked by the sexist comments – instead they just make me chuckle.

Recently Crecente from Kotaku wondered why there aren’t more female gaming bloggers. Apparently Kotaku’s looking to expand their repertoire and want to include a female voice in their writing staff – well good for them.

The shocker, however was:

‘But despite my digging around and my somewhat overt nosing around at GDC, I was hard-pressed to find the same sort of, for lack of a better term, job pool that I usually find with male writers.’

My experience coincides with ‘Always Makes Me LOL’ Amber Night:

‘This seems a little strange to me, since my own experience has been that there is fairly large pool of female bloggers in the gaming space’

I find it incredibly odd. And I have to admit that a thought passed through my mind wondering if Crecente posted this piece just so we could point him in the right direction so he didn’t have to bother looking.

So yet again ‘the battle of the sexes’ discussion has produced something wonderful. One Hundred Little Dolls has written a list of female gaming bloggers and I’m sure we’ll see it growing too! A joy to see some locals on the list: Jill Walker, Hilde Corneliussen and Torill Mortensen – I’m so proud! I can’t wait to go on a little link adventure and explore these blogs! Wouldn’t it be precious if T.L. Taylor started blogging?!