Cheating

I found an interesting article while leafing through the pages of "Games for Windows" magazine (september 2007 issue) it discussed cheating, its classifications and its historical background within the digital gaming medium. It also discusses thereotical justifications for cheating. The article is based on the book "Cheating" by Mia Consalvo. There are some interesting insights into what gamers consider morally acceptable within the realm of "cheating".

The book is here.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11153

Excerpt from the book can be found here.
http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11153&mode=toc

Gaming Sketching

Hi All- I read the BBC's website and caught this great article in the Technology section- One deals with rapid prototyping methods "game sketching" which was developed by students at Carnegie Mellon university in Adelaide, Australia> They say "game sketching is designed to replace game elements that usually take months of design and developer work with puppets, actors and basic virtual characters." Interesting. The full article is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7012688.stm

This is something to discuss as means to ends for your prototype or pitch development-

who owns the word "game"?

so i came across this site while i was researching for my presentation.. it got me confused about the word "game".. but no matter how much those ppl argue about it.. i dont think theres a definition to "game". what do you guys think?


http://www.jesperjuul.net/ludologist/index.php?p=50&c=1

Wii-mote Prototype

Wii-mote Prototype 1

Wii-mote Prototype 2

Gizmodo is a pretty cool site/tech blog that I regularly visit and awhile back I saw these article. I think it's pretty interesting to see the prototypes to the Wii-mote and see how it developped from something very traditional, in looks, to what it is now. It makes one wonder how playing with the prototype wii-mote would be like compared to current one. The design of something that seems as simple as a video game controller can so creately affect how people interact with a game.

Bio-feedback & Brain Computer Interfaces

This has been in the works for quite some time- The first time I came across this was while researching DARPA and their human augmentation programs- as related to advanced prosthetics & telepresence etc- Duke University had one of the original protptypes hooked up to a chimp? Anyway this technology- as interface has added another dimension to games-I think it is commonly used for clinical studies, "rehabilitation" and "treatment". We'll be discussing this in a few weeks when we look at interfaces and interaction- possibly in the expansion session as well. Emotive systems seems to be the leader in game related brain-game interfaces... Check it out.

http://www.emotiv.com/index.html
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004562.html
http://www.arsgeek.com/?p=1128

VR Simulation

Wow! It looks nice here.
This is just a link I found while browsing for inspirational sources in regards to the applications and avenues of the gaming industry. This article talks about a VR simulator which produces environments that assist in the clinical treatment of individuals with speech impediments. It's a good indication that the market for play is vast...so long as you have a decent budget to work with. I hope that this is helpful for anyone who is attempting to consider both the economical and social applications of their game design.

http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/story.php?itemID=11243&version=1933&pageID=4832

Ryan Church

http://www.ryanchurch.com/index.htm

While looking through his work I got to thinking that fantasy games absolutely must possess that extra step of detail to not only entice the gamer to play but also to make it seem real. Reality is a tool used by games and artists like Church to manipulate people into buying these products, but why are people looking for fantasy?