Oooh! A new webisode series that looks great!
Tag Archives: games
"The top tier of Second Life is run by the women"
Excellent Metaverse Territories introduced me to a great blogpost about Second Life from Broken Toys called “Utopia Hidden Underground: Another Look at SL“.
All in all it sums up nicely with:
“That core of the singularity is what is actually Second Life’s core
strength, and what keeps its users struggling through the level grind and the
broken client and the lack of governmental, er, Linden oversight. Because as a
social MMO, once you get past all the clutter and dross, SL actually works. I
can honestly say that nowhere else online have I argued about Islamic
fundamentalism at one in the morning while lounging in a pool with a half-naked
demon-thing. Much like how people played Ultima Online despite its rampant
peekay and endless bugs simply because it was the promise of something new,
people find the core of SL is actually the other players. That’s something
that’s difficult to break.”
BBC on goldfarming
I’m a big fan of the BBC! Here’s a nice little segment on how and why virtual currency in WoW has become so popular. I really like it because it gets to the heart of the matter and doesn’t dwell on the dramatic realization that people are using real money to buy virtual things. It’s really to the point – and I’m so glad that they included a Blizzard representative that could voice their concerns with RMT. Thanks sis for sending it to me!
Top 25 Video Game Cinematic Moments
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!
Espen Aarseth’s coming to town!
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!
Bogost finds the words
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
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?!
flOw
I remember reading small tidbits of information about this game – but hadn’t tried it until now. It’s absolutely stunning!
flOw is a masters in fine arts thesis by Jenova Chen and Nicholas Clark at the University of Southern California. From what I understand, they’ve used Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow to investigate why some games are more mesmerising than others. I haven’t read the thesis yet, but the game is just luscious and beautiful!
I can’t help but feel like I’m meditating while playing! So play!
Rune Klevjer – Congrats!
Rune Klevjer presented his PhD thesis on Friday – sadly I had to work, so missed it! But I’m so looking forward to reading
What is the avatar! Fiction and Embodiment in Avatar-Based Singleplayer Computer Games.
I’m sure it’s absolutely amazing! No doubt!
MMORPG professionals
Raph Koster writes about a new group that calls themselves “The Virtual Citizenship Association”. It’s a new group advocating virtual citizen ehm ‘rights’. In his blogpost he points out the relevant problems with their social contract – which I completely agree with – so I’m not going to bother repeating it all in my own words here – you should just read it – I can’t do his words justice here!
But entering the site – I was quite intrigued by how they define themselves:
“We’re a group of MMORPG professionals, people who enjoy playing in online universes in general and people who advocate the use of Free Software.”
I find that interesting. When I think of ‘MMORPG proffesionals’ I think of game operators and designers – not players, but it’s a relevant point! Why shouldn’t players be labeled as MMORPG professionals? I kinda like it – it tickled me!
As for what they’re advocating, I agree with Koster when he writes:
“I’d prefer any such social contract to focus more on how operators have to treat players, than on forcing particular business models on operators.”
Too right!
And in case you don’t have the time to read the comments, I have to paste glorious Mr. Bartle’s comment – where would this industry be without his precious sense of humor?
“Why is it that these “players’ rights” advocates always target the virtual world developers and never the people who run guilds?
Richard
PS: Wouldn’t it be amusing if a virtual world developer banned membership of such organisations under its EULA?”
Remember What The Dormouse Said 