I admit no small amount of surprise when I first saw an image of an Xbox controller featured in the latest Humanities magazine, a bi-monthly publication from the National Endowment for the Humanities. While the images are (unfortunately) only in the print version, you can read online the Chairman's interview with Steven Johnson, author of Everything Bad is Good for you.
I find the whole dance around whether or not video games can be "good" morally, or "good" aesthetically ("great art"), versus just good for stimulating problem-solving skills, quite fascinating (both in the interview and in Johnson's book). But overall, it's great to see games talked about in federal grant-making agencies, at least. The recent interviews with folks like Johnson and Vinton Cerf reflect NEH's continued interest in humanities computing (having provided funding for many of the largest projects in past years), an emphasis that has been recently reinvigorated by the Digital Humanities Initiative.
Matt Kirschenbaum has a new blog, Zone of Influence (zoi.wordherders.net), in which he talks about games and, specifically, board wargames. In his "Welcome" post, Matt describes these types of games as ...
cardboard computers; they are instruments for modeling, prediction, and prognostication, but by their nature they are open source with the algorithms laid bare in numerically expressed outcomes on charts and tables. The only “black box” is the designer’s intentions.
He has several posts available already, so be sure to read them all and, of course, leave comments.
The Digiplay Initiative has created a dynamic, wiki-style Games Research Bibliography. Worth checking out and contributing to.
The Federation of American Scientists released their report on last year's Summit on Educational Games, which I found to an engaging, informative event. Check out the "Fact Sheet" for the short version, and take a look at some of the educational games FAS produced, including Discover Babylon.
May 7. There hath been a sad case. A woman and man hath been fined for playing cards. They lived very near the meeting house. The fine was five pounds, but Uncle John says it should be more for so grave a matter.
-- Hetty Shepard's Fears about the Future of New England, 1675-77
Probably one of the more concise, understandable descriptions of a kind of "interactive narrative" I've seen:
The idea of Bending Stories consists in considering the story as a sort of elastic band that the player is free to stretch depending on his actions. The story retains its structure but the player can modify its length and form and thus participate in the narration. In reality the story does not change diametrically from one game to the next, all that changes is the way it is told. However, the player can see parts of scenes and obtain different information depending on the particular path he follows.
Gamasutra - Feature - "Postmortem: Indigo Prophecy" by designer David Cage.
Unfortunately, due to comment spam I've had to start relying on a CAPTCHA - one of those funny image/text verifcation systems (this plugin is SCode). I am well aware of the issues they cause, especially for those with vision problems. Currently, however, I'm just not sure any better way to stop the spam, which has shut our servers down several times in the past weeks. I welcome comments on the change, either through the normal comment feature or via email, which is always accessible: jcrhody AT umd DOT edu. Fellow herders - I sent email around detailing how to implement the plugin. I ask that you choose some effective way to moderate spam (TypeKey, SCode, etc.).
Posting has - and will remain - relatively light for the next several weeks, for a variety of reasons. Once I give it a good spellcheck, I will probably post the talk I gave at Georgetown a few weeks ago. The talk, which I gave alongside Michelle Roper and Mark Sample, was well-attended and enjoyable. After about 50 minutes of presentations, the forty or so audience members, who hailed from GW, Georgetown, UMD, UVA, and George Mason, ran us through our paces with about 70 minutes of Q & A. All in all, a great conversation and enjoyable afternoon.
Dear kind reader,
If you perhaps have a copy of the Oxford History of Board Games, which is already (apparently) out of print, and only available through fine booksellers online for between $100 and $400 (slightly beyond my humble budget), and is not available through my entire library system for retrieval, I might wonder if you would be ever so kind as to look through the pages of your (apparently) valuable tome to see how much - if at all - said book describes the history of Cluedo (Clue), published by Waddington Games and Parker Brothers?
I would be much obliged.
Humbly, etc etc.
JR (in the Library, with the Rope).
UPDATE: Jesper kindly sent a scan of the page. Many thanks to those who emailed.
Two new books of interest now available:
Unit Operations : An Approach to Videogame Criticism
by Ian Bogost
and
Play Between Worlds : Exploring Online Game Culture
by T.L. Taylor
A few interesting tidbits to consider in The New York Times article Is the Pen as Mighty as the Joystick? [free registration required; link will expire].
"It's like writing a travel guide to a place that doesn't exist," Mr. Hodgson said. "Whereas Frommer's guides tell you what hotel to stay in, I tell you which hotel not to stay in because you're going to get dragged down by a gangster."
and
"The first thing I thought was, 'I need a map,' " said Mr. Hodgson, 33, who spent the first part of his time getting to know New York and New Jersey, where the game is set. With help from the company, he also familiarized himself with a range of weapons, the best ways to blow up buildings and how to extort various characters. There are 50 to 60 ways to murder people in the game — from running them over with cars to garroting — and many ways to shake down a merchant.
Not much to add right now - I'm on limited time. But I wanted to note the article for its focus not so much on the use of guides, but on their creation.
On our way over to Scott's talk today, Marc was telling me about his VIAO, which came with (correct me if I'm wrong Marc) a TV tuner card and some software that allowed him to play his GameCube on his screen. The software also allowed him to record his play sessions. My understanding had always been that there was significant lag with a setup like this, making console game play all but impossible on such a rig. This is why I've avoided buying another video card, and why the Adaptec GameBridge was potentially a big deal (and, at under $100, still seems like a possible solution). Marc says, not so - it works just fine (Marc, have you tried it with the PS2?).
I'm curious about other's experiences - how do you "do" game scholarship? What tools do you use? What tools do we need? Do you record play sessions or, like me, just have a LOT of notes and a LOT of saved game files?
This is at least indirectly related to Scott's talk, in which he gave a nice overview of the ELO, its history and purpose, some of its future goals, and the challenges implicit in the study of new media objects that question, resist, or even outright defy genre. Scott shared several examples from the forthcoming Electronic Literature Collection and generated some nice discussion about genre and the "literature question" (as in, "Is this even literature?"), as well as about general e-lit teaching strategies and preservation and archiving challenges. Though I've followed Scott's blogging (both his personal one and Grand Text Auto), I was pleased to hear about his work in person, which was intriguing enough to run the program well past its normal stopping time.
If you are in the DC area, MITH's Digital Dialogues has a great line-up this semester, including scholars like Scott (today), Jerome McGann and Johanna Drucker (March 14) and Alan Liu (April 28) as well as writer Shelley Jackson, author of Patchwork Girl, Skin, Doll Diaries (April 17) and comic guru Scott McCloud of _Understanding Comics_ fame (May 2). There are many others, so look at the full schedule here (PDF).
My review of The Video Game Theory Reader, with brief responses from the editors, was posted at the Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. RCCS is a great resource for the study of all things cyberculture, especially if you are looking to build either a bibliography (see Book Reviews) or a syllabus (see Courses).
FYI. One can never complain about free journal articles.
E-Games: Far more complex than simple "good / bad" dualities the popular press suggestThe latest Issue of the “International Review of Information Ethics“ focuses on E-Games. Guest Editors Elizabeth Buchanan and Charles Ess have compiled an issue that builds up a collection of philosophically and empirically robust articles and is now available free of charge at www.i-r-i-e.net.
A few CFPs worth considering. Full descriptions after the jump:
"HCI Issues in Computer Games"
INTERACTING WITH COMPUTERS JOURNAL
and
*CFP : Videogames and the Alien / Other*
Second Annual University of Florida Game Studies Conference
and
IR 7.0: INTERNET CONVERGENCES
International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers. Brisbane, Australia, 28-30 September 2006
and
Sandbox: an ACM Video Game Symposium
Collocated with SIGGRAPH 06
29 July & 30 July, 2006, Boston, MA, USA
http://sandboxsymposium.org/
CALL FOR PAPERS INTERACTING WITH COMPUTERS JOURNALSpecial Issue of Interacting with Computers on
"HCI Issues in Computer Games"
http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~zaphiri/Announcements/games.htmlGuest Editors
Panayiotis Zaphiris & CS Ang, Centre for HCI Design,
City University LondonIntroduction to special issue topic
Computer Games are at the forefront of technological innovation and
their popularity in research is also increasing. Their wide presence and
use makes Computer Games a major factor affecting the way people
socialize, learn and possibly work. Computer Games are also beginning to
attract the attention of educators and education technologists.With this special issue of Interacting with Computers we wish to explore
the relationship between Computer Games and Human-Computer Interaction
(HCI). Are current HCI techniques and methodologies appropriate for
designing Computer Games? Do we need new Computer Game focused HCI
methods, theories and paradigms? What are the new challenges when it
comes to evaluating Computer Games?This special issue of Interacting with Computers is inviting
contributions from both the academic community and industry. It will
focus on issues surrounding the analysis, design, development and
evaluation of Computer Games and the issues surrounding them. Potential
topics include (but are not limited to) the following:* Design approaches and techniques suitable for Computer Games
* Usability studies regarding Computer Games
* Theoretical and/or pedagogical foundations for analysing Computer Games
* Within-game and/or out-game activities and their HCI analysis
* Computer Games and Online Communities
* Social and Cultural Issues and Computer Games
* Accessibility of Computer Games
* Transfer of gaming metaphors to business applications"Interacting with Computers" is an interdisciplinary journal of
Human-Computer Interaction, published by Elsevier. More information
about this journal can be found at:http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/525445/description
IwC special issues contain only 5 - 6 papers, each of no more than
10,000 words (so acceptance will be fairly selective).Submission:
Papers should be submitted through the manuscript management system at
http://ees.elsevier.com/iwc/ by the 10th of April 2006. The style
standard is that of the American Psychological Association (APA), more
details about which can be obtained from:
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPAFormatting.htmlImportant dates:
Full paper submission: 10th April 2006 (Monday)
Response to authors: 8th May 2006 (Monday)
Final version of papers: 5th June 2006 (Monday)
Planned publication: September 2006
*CFP : Videogames and the Alien / Other* Second Annual University of Florida Game Studies Conference Gainesville, FL April 7-8, 2006http://www.alien.gameology.org
The University of Florida's Game Studies Group, College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences and Digital Worlds Institute are pleased to announce
the 2006 UF Game StudiesConference: "Video Games and the Alien/Other,"
which will be held in Gainesville,Florida, on April 7-8 2006.*Guest Speaker*
Lee Sheldon, author of Character Development and Storytelling for
Games whose writing credits include Agatha Christie: And then there
were none [The Adventure Company], Uru: Ages beyond Myst [Cyan], The
Riddle of Master Lu, and Dark Side of the Moon.This conference explores the figure of the Alien and the Other and the
various functions it serves within video games. Since the original
Space Invaders, video games have incorporated representations of
difference in a variety of ways--specifically, the figure of the Alien
features prominently as an enemy or source of conflict. This
interdisciplinary conference invites both critical and practical works
that engage the implications of this theme of alterity in video games
and related electronic media.We invite presentations that explore the theme of difference in video
games either through theoretical examinations of particular works or
new media creations which represent the Alien artistically,
programmatically and/or digitally.Accordingly, we offer two tracks for submissions:
Theory: Academic papers critically analyzing a specific function of
video games or new media in the context of the Alien.Praxis: Performances, installations, or demonstrations which
communicate an idea related to the topic through the creation of
digital media artifacts. These presentations should also be
accompanied by a short oral explication of the central ideas and
intellectual context. Submissions should include a sample of the work
(e.g. a screenshot) if possible.Presenters should focus their submissions on one of several key themes:
* Player-Characters and the function of the outsider
* Gaming cultures and subcultures
* Portraying gender, race, religion and the avatar
* Monstrosity, bodies and avatars
* Otherness and online societies (e.g. MMORPG's)
* Xenophobia and alterity in representations of "enemies."
* Designing the Alien/Other through AI and NPCs
* Video game villains and anti-heroesPossible topics include but are not limited to:
* The Other and the industry -- the role of independent game developers.
* Localization and the alleged erasure of cultural difference
through video games.
* Marketing and approaching new demographics.
* Becoming the Other in online role-playing communities.
* Colonialism and Orientalism within historical simulations.
* The representation (or lack) of religious pluralism in video games.
* Representations of race, gender, and/or sexual preference in games.
* The Evolution of the Alien/Other in games.
* Becoming Other -- choosing a moral path in KOTOR or Black and White.
* Subversive game play.
* Psychoanalysis, video games and the other/Other.
* Becoming Alien/Other in online games.
* Alien/Other and the differences inherent in console or interface
configurations.
* Close studies of specific Alien/Others and tropes of Alien/Otherness.Abstract submissions should be approximately 250-500 words in length.
Presentations will be 15 minutes with 5 minutes of question and
answer. The deadline for abstract submissions is Wednesday, March 1,
2006. We accept abstracts in electronic form (preferred) or print.If possible, please submit proposals through our online system:
http://www.alien.gameology.org/submission.php.
Internet Research 7.0, Brisbane 28-30 September 2006CALL FOR PAPERS
IR 7.0: INTERNET CONVERGENCES
International and Interdisciplinary Conference of the Association of Internet ResearchersBrisbane, Australia
28-30 September 2006Pre-Conference Workshops: 27 September 2006
INTERNET CONVERGENCES
The Internet works as an arena of convergence. Physically dispersed and marginalized people (re)find themselves online for the sake of sustaining and extending community. International and interdisciplinary teams now collaborate in new ways. Diverse cultures engage one another via CMC. These technologies relocate and refocus capital, labor and immigration, and they open up new possibilities for political, potentially democratizing, forms of discourse. Moreover, these technologies themselves converge in multiple ways, e.g. in Internet-enabled mobile phones, in Internet-based telephony, and in computers themselves as "digital appliances" that conjoin communication and multiple media forms. These technologies also facilitate fragmentations with greater disparities between the information-haves and have-nots, between winners and losers in the shifting labor and capital markets, and between individuals and communities. Additionally these technologies facilitate information filtering that reinforces, rather than dialogically challenges, narrow and extreme views.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Our conference theme invites papers and presentations based on empirical research, theoretical analysis and everything in between that explore the multiple ways the Internet acts in both converging and fragmenting ways - physical, cultural, technological, political, social - on local, regional, and global scales.
Without limiting possible proposals, topics of interest include:
- Theoretical and practical models of the Internet
- Internet convergence, divergence and fragmentation
- Networked flows of information, capital, labor, etc.
- Migrations and diasporas online
- Identity, community and global communication
- Regulation and control (national and global)
- Internet-based development and other economic issues
- Digital art and aesthetics
- Games and gaming on the Internet
- The Net generation
- E-Sectors, e.g. e-health, e-education, e-businessWe call for papers, panel proposals, and presentations from any discipline, methodology, and community that address the theme of Internet Convergence. We particularly call for innovative, exciting, and unexpected takes on and interrogations of the conference theme. However, we always welcome submissions on any topics that address social, cultural, political, economic, and/or aesthetic aspects of the Internet and related Internet technologies. We are equally interested in interdisciplinary proposals as well as proposals from within specific disciplines.
SUBMISSIONS
We seek proposals for several different kinds of contributions. We welcome proposals for traditional academic conference papers, but we also encourage proposals for creative or aesthetic presentations that are distinct from a traditional written 'paper'. We welcome proposals for roundtable sessions that will focus on discussion and interaction among conference delegates, and we also welcome organized panel proposals that present a coherent group of papers on a single theme.
This year AoIR will also be using an alternative presentation format in which a dozen or so participants who wish to present a very short overview of their work to stimulate debate will gather together in a plenary session involving short presentations (no more than 5 minutes) and extended discussion. All papers and presentations in this session will be reviewed in the normal manner. Further information will be available via the conference submission website.
- PAPERS (individual or multi-author) - submit abstract of 500-750 words
- SHORT PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-700 words
- CREATIVE OR AESTHETIC PRESENTATIONS - submit abstract of 500-700 words
- PANELS - submit a 250-500 word description of the panel theme and abstracts of the distinct papers or presentations
- ROUNDTABLE PROPOSALS - submit a statement indicating the nature of the roundtable discussion and interaction.
Papers, presentations and panels will be selected from the submitted proposals on the basis of multiple blind peer review, coordinated and overseen by the Program Chair. Each person is invited to submit a proposal for 1 paper or 1 presentation. People may also propose a panel of papers or presentations, of which their personal paper or presentation must be a part. You may submit an additional paper/ presentation of which you are the co-author as long as you are not presenting twice. You may submit a roundtable proposal as well.
Detailed information about submission and review is available at the conference submission website http://conferences.aoir.org. All proposals must be submitted electronically through this site.
PUBLICATION OF PAPERS
All papers presented at the conference are eligible for publication in the Internet Research Annual, on the basis of competitive selection and review of full papers. Additionally, several publishing opportunities are expected to be available through journals, again based on peer-review of full papers. Details on the website.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Graduate students are strongly encouraged to submit proposals. Any student paper is eligible for consideration for the AoIR graduate student award. Students wishing to be a candidate for the Student Award must also send a final paper by 31 July 2006.
DOCTORAL COLLOQUIUM
The IR7.0 Doctoral Colloquium offers PhD students working in Internet research or a related field a special forum on 27 September 2006 where they will have a chance to present their research plans and discuss them with peers and established senior researchers.
Interested students should prepare a 2 page summary of their research. This should provide a context for the research, describe the methods being used, the progress to date and expectations and hopes from the colloquium. Please submit your 2 page application by 1 April 2006 to Marcus Foth at m.foth@qut.edu.au
Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 1 June 2006. Successful applicants will be asked to prepare an 8 page paper on their research by 1 August 2006.
Doctoral Colloquium Host and Sponsor: Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology
PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS
Prior to the conference, there will be a limited number of pre- conference workshops which will provide participants with in-depth, hands-on and/or creative opportunities. We invite proposals for these pre-conference workshops. Local presenters are encouraged to propose workshops that will invite visiting researchers into their labs or studios or locales. Proposals should be no more than 1000 words, and should clearly outline the purpose, methodology, structure, costs, equipment and minimal attendance required, as well as explaining its relevance to the conference as a whole. Proposals will be accepted if they demonstrate that the workshop will add significantly to the overall program in terms of thematic depth, hands on experience, or local opportunities for scholarly or artistic connections. These proposals and all inquires regarding pre-conference proposals should be submitted as soon as possible to the Conference Chair and no later than 31 March 2006.
DEADLINES
Final date for proposal submission: 21 February 2006
Presenter notification: 21 March 2006
Final workshop submission deadline: 31 March 2006
Submission for publication/student award: 31 July 2006
Submission for conference archive: 30 September 2006
CONTACT INFORMATION
Program Chair: Dr Fay Sudweeks, Murdoch University, Australia, f.sudweeks@murdoch.edu.au
Conference Chair: Dr Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, a.bruns@qut.edu.au
President of AoIR: Dr Matthew Allen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia m.allen@curtin.edu.au
Association Website: http://www.aoir.org
Conference Website: http://conferences.aoir.org
CALL FOR PAPERS:
Sandbox: an ACM Video Game Symposium
Collocated with SIGGRAPH 06
29 July & 30 July, 2006, Boston, MA, USA
http://sandboxsymposium.org/
ACM is hosting a two-day video game symposium on 29 July and 30 July in 2006, co-located with SIGGRAPH 06 in Boston, MA, USA. The symposium will consist of keynotes, panels and papers. In addition, a "Hot Games" session will preview unreleased titles from major game companies and indie developers.
Video games are a singular technological medium, comparable in cultural impact to the telephone, television or the Internet. How can we advance the state of technology while ensuring that the medium flourishes? What role do Indie developers play in maintaining diversity and creativity in this medium? What are the impacts of the medium on society and on individuals?
The symposium seeks papers that describe research and ideas that are original and innovative. Technical papers should contain an empirical evaluation and an explicit description of the advantages of the proposed technique. Other papers should meet the standards of their respective disciplines (e.g. economics or media studies) and will be peer-reviewed. Selected papers will be those that are judged to have the greatest potential for either immediate or long-term impact on the field of game development
Developers and researchers from all related disciplines are invited to participate in this event and to exchange ideas, theories and experiences regarding the state of the field. We seek contributions from the technical, creative, independent and academic communities that design and develop video games and related technology, and also from observers of video games and their impact on society and on individuals.
TOPICS
Topics should center on critical and analytical approaches to video games. The focus is threefold: (1) industry and scholarly perspectives on how video games are designed and developed; (2) analysis of the experience and pleasures of game play; (3) critical articles on the value and significance of video games as cultural artifacts. Throughout, topics should focus on close readings and critical analysis of the design and development aspects of creating unique game experiences. While MMOs, Serious Games, simulations, and pervasive/mobile games are well researched, the committee also invites submissions that explore games from the wide range of popular console and PC titles. Studies of major games with significant player bases are encouraged. The committee welcomes interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to video game criticism, as well as those from the technical, social sciences and the humanities. We invite work across game platforms and titles, on games and literature, games and film, economics, media studies, communication, sociology, games and art, and games and other digital media.
Examples of some topic areas that are of interest include, but are not limited to:
Real-time animation and computer graphics for video games
Distributed simulation and communication in multi-player games
Game console hardware and software
Psychophysics and user interfaces
Artificial intelligence in games
Interactive physics
Uses of GPU for non-graphical algorithms in games
Multi-processor techniques for games
Speech and vision processing as user input techniques
Development tools and techniques
Procedural art
Sound Design and music in games
Mathematical Game Theory applied to video games
Cinematography in games
Game design and game genres
Story structure (setting, plot, character, theme) in games
Games (Casual, Serious, Mobile, Networked, Alternative Reality, Ubiquitous, Pervasive, etc.)
Legal, political, and societal impacts
Women and diversity in games
Gamer culture and community; such as modding communities, LAN parties, creative gamer content and machinima
Independent game developers
Economics and business of the game industry
Game production and labor
Negotiating intellectual property issues in development
Trade offs between creativity and branding in design and production
Alternative distribution models
SUBMISSIONS
Please submit full papers, not abstracts. Accepted formats:
-Long Paper (max. 10 pages)
-Short paper (max. 4 pages)
All papers will be reviewed by an independent review committee, which will provide written feedback on each paper. ACM will publish the proceedings and papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library.
DATES
Submission of full paper (long or short): 1 May 2006
Submission of camera-ready papers: 1 July 2006
Submission of Hot Game demo: 1 July 06 *
CONTACT
Conference Chair: Drew Davidson (drew AT waxebb DOT com)
Program Chair: Alan Heirich (alan.heirich AT playstation.sony.com)
Program Chair: Doug Thomas (douglast AT usc DOT edu)
A few years back, L and I were sharing a train ride back to DC with Neil F. after the ACH/ALLC conference in New York. I recall Neil ruminating on the nature of ruin, and we were bouncing around different ideas as to what constituted the ruins of virtual worlds, the WWW, and cyberspace in general – broken links and 404s, WWW pages with image tags gaping open, walking through the empty halls of MOOs and MUSHs abandoned long ago. December 31st not only brought 2005 to a close, but also the online world Asheron’s Call 2, the unsuccessful sequel to Turbine’s franchise. Warcry’s Crossroads of Dereth has one set of screenshots and a script of dialogue during a server’s final moments – the remaining ruins of a world that no longer exists.
Penny Arcade created a comic for Ubisoft's new Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones game, which is the third installment of this iteration of the franchise originally created by Jordon Mechner.
An interesting conversation about games, characters, and morality over at TN: Terra Nova: The Grey Area. A reverse trackback of sorts - my comments are in the thread, and I want to remember to return to it.
Heather Chaplin and Aaron Ruby, authors of Smartbomb:
The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution, are holding a Live chat at WashingtonPost.com today at 1pm (starting in a few minutes). An archive of the chat will be available at the above link.
They also blog here.
UPDATE: They did explain the title.
Bethesda, Md.: Why did you name your book Smartbomb?Heather Chaplin: Smartbomb came from Aaron. He grew up in Orange County playing Defender, first of all. Then, he was interested in how the term came into the culture initially through a videogame, and THEN with the first Iraq war.
It seemed like a title that resonated with the very subject matter of the book - that this is essentially a smartbomb being dropped on our society. The medium fosters "smarts" and is being created by super smart people, they're being carefully guided to exlode over our heads by companies like Microsoft and Sony, and the connections between the industry and military run deep. So...thus you have Smartbomb as our title!
Hmm.
The BBC presents The Seven Noble Kinsmen: A Shakespeare Murder Mystery, a game where you "take the role of 'The Critic' and solve a series of bizarre murders." Jay Is Games has a review, and the link was gathered at Wonderland. Looks intriguing... by it'll have to go behind my current play (or, in some cases, replay) list: MediEvil (PS), Grim Fandango (PC), Half-Life 2 (PC), Desert Combat (PC - mod of Battlefield 1942), Planescape:Torment (PC), Halo (Xbox), Castlevania (original ported to GBA), Katamari Damacy (PS2), and (when I have time) an unnamed beta test of an unnamable (due to NDA) MMoRPG.
A bit of a full plate, game-wise. You'd think I was writing my dissertation on them or something.
Halloween week was also Serious Games week in Washington DC. Last Tuesday I attended "The Summit on Educational Games" sponsored by Federation of American Scientists, and I have a brief recap and a copy of the agenda under the fold. Then came the Serious Games Summit DC, which I did not attend, but Dennis Jerz blogged Day One and Day Two; additional coverage available at Water Cooler Games (Day One and Day Two).
And yesterday, The National Academies sponsored "Challenges and Opportunities in Game-based Learning." No write up for that yet, but I'll post one when I get back to my notes. The theme seemed mostly to be "There are lots of opportunities, but the primary challenge is funding." I regret not being able to attend the teaching track at the Serious Games Summit, where I would have hoped to hear more about specific strategies and pitfalls about actual classroom use of games (I haven't read through all of the summaries linked above, so I have no idea if that would have happened there either).
I also wonder about the use of games in the humanities classroom, as opposed to math, physics, and other sciences. Because of the scientific nature of the sponsors (FAS, National Academies), I was clearly a rather rare humanities bird in an otherwise science-heavy room. One presenter's slide yesterday even rather amusingly detailed the need for the inclusion of more "artists, writers, and other long-haired folk" in the game design process.
Meanwhile, here is a quick round-up of some thoughts from the FAS Summit from last Tuesday (a quick and dirty summary, with lots of exclusions - enter all usual caveats here).
=================================================
The Summit on Educational Games
Marriot Metro Center, Washington DC
October 25, 2005
The Summit on Educational Games was sponsored by the Federation of American Scientists and the Entertainment Software Association. After introductory remarks by Henry Kelley (President, Federation of American Scientists), Doug Lowenstein (President, Entertainment Software Association), and Donald Thompson (Acting Assistant Director of Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation), the keynote address – “What Do Games Offer For Learning?” – was given by Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness. The agenda for the rest of the day is attached to the bottom of this document. The summit fielded representatives from a variety of arenas: academics, scientists, non-profit directors and project managers, government workers (including grant agencies as well as military and DOD), textbook publishers, and game designers (Odd World; Firaxis of Sid Mier’s Civilization series; BreakAway Games).
Review of Discussion
A prominent theme throughout the day highlighted both the need and the opportunity for change in the US educational system. As Wince-Smith argued in her keynote, with a global marketplace creating increasing market pressures, the primary way for the US to maintain market competitiveness is to remain at the forefront of what Alan Greenspan calls the “conceptual economy” – the economy of innovation and creativity. Most panelists throughout the day argued that the incorporation of game-like exercises as a regular component of K-12 schooling would require a radical shift in the current US education system, which has remained fairly consistent in structure (agricultural calendar, length of time at school) for several decades. As Eugene Hickok (former Deputy Secretary of Education) argued, education is the one major public social institution that has not undergone radical transformation in the past century.
The current emphasis on standards and requirements from No Child Left Behind presents several challenges to incorporating non-traditional, supplemental material in the public classroom. Furthermore, budget constraints and the competitive textbook industry (highlighted in particular by Scholastic’s VP of Technology and Development, Midian Kurland) compound this issue. Coupled with the large budget requirements that most contemporary games require (10-20 million, and on the rise), the summit’s discussions made clear that the use of educational games in the K-12 public classroom remains in the early stages of development, and would require serious investment. Several times, various constituencies argued for governmental support for Research and Development in public education; currently, there is no budget for this at all - amazing for an industry supported by millions of dollars of public money. In contrast, many corporations spend 10-12% (or more) on R&D.
At the same time, the process of learning afforded by games is encouraging in its usefulness in K-12 pedagogy: staged development and advancement, immediate reward systems (both positive and negative), and challenges based on the skill-level of the user. While more research is necessary to show effectiveness, some studies do show that learning improves when users engage in simulations [see Menn (1995); Sugrue, “Which Comes First: The Simulation or the Lecture?”; Mille, Lehman, Koedinger (1999)]. A great deal of discussion at the summit centered around transferability of knowledge from inside of the simulation to situations that are similar outside of the simulation (with lots of anecdotal discussion from education, corporate training, military training provided in the discussion periods).
Funding appears to be coming from NSF, DoD (and individual military branches, such as the Army’s “America’s Army” brand), DARPA, and occasionally (but rarely) private venture capitalists. IMLS has funded some simulation-type projects, such as “Discover Babylon,” which is being developed by the Federation of American Scientists, in collaboration with IMLS, UCLA, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.
In summary, panelists highlighted the potential benefits, the need for further research, the need for (extensive) R&D funding, the difficulty of incorporating game technology in the public classroom, and the need for revolutionary change in our current education system to compete in the global marketplace.
Projects Highlighted
The 1pm session during lunch demonstrated four games in development for educational purposes. Breakaway Games’ Incident Commander is a simulation of emergency response for middle- and small-scale communities to practice their response techniques to events such as toxic chemical spills, train wrecks, fires, and so forth.
The University of Southern California, funded in part by DARPA, developed the Tactical Language Trainer, which is based on the UnReal Engine and uses XML and Python for language database and AI behavior. The user is placed in a 3d environment (in this case, a city in Iraq) and they must use their avatar to communicate with locals, which is facilitated using Voice Recognition software. The user thus engages in linguistic and cultural practices (by speaking and also gesturing and behaving appropriately) in order to accomplish various missions in the simulation (successfully gaining the trust of a native Iraqi by following appropriate customs, for example). The game includes a tutorial and reference material in language and culture training that directly relates to the kinds of examples found in the game itself.
Firaxis presented Civilization 4, the newest incarnation of Sid Mier’s famous strategy game. Civilization 3 has been used in several schools – one of the few computer games (like Oregon Trail) that permeated the school system. There have been studies done on the use of Civilization in the classroom (see Kurt Squire’s work). Civilization, it should be noted, does not claim to aim for historical accuracy, which they admittedly sacrifice at times in favor of gameplay. But the benefit of Civilization is in training students in critically investigating the game apparatus at the same time they are using it (thus seeing how it differs from history and historical work).
Henry Kelley highlighted Immune Attack, a project that purports to teach students about the immune system in a game-like environment. His presentation was cut short by time limitations.
In discussion, Maryland Public Television highlighted their “Research Study Field Trips” – online virtual trips about a specific topic. Tested in two Maryland public middle schools, data suggests increased achievement for students using these trips over students using traditional learning methods alone.
http://www.thinkport.org/TECHNOLOGY/TOPICS/THINKPORTNEWS/researchstudyfieldtrips.tp
Press
Inside Higher Ed wrote an article on the Summit.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/26/games
Halloween week was also Serious Games week in Washington DC. Last Tuesday I attended "The Summit on Educational Games" sponsored by Federation of American Scientists, and I have a brief recap and a copy of the agenda under the fold. Then came the Serious Games Summit DC, which I did not attend, but Dennis Jerz blogged Day One and Day Two; additional coverage available at Water Cooler Games (Day One and Day Two).
And yesterday, The National Academies sponsored "Challenges and Opportunities in Game-based Learning." No write up for that yet, but I'll post one when I get back to my notes. The theme seemed mostly to be "There are lots of opportunities, but the primary challenge is funding." I regret not being able to attend the teaching track at the Serious Games Summit, where I would have hoped to hear more about specific strategies and pitfalls about actual classroom use of games (I haven't read through all of the summaries linked above, so I have no idea if that would have happened there either).
I also wonder about the use of games in the humanities classroom, as opposed to math, physics, and other sciences. Because of the scientific nature of the sponsors (FAS, National Academies), I was clearly a rather rare humanities bird in an otherwise science-heavy room. One presenter's slide yesterday even rather amusingly detailed the need for the inclusion of more "artists, writers, and other long-haired folk" in the game design process.
Meanwhile, here is a quick round-up of some thoughts from the FAS Summit from last Tuesday (a quick and dirty summary, with lots of exclusions - enter all usual caveats here).
=================================================
The Summit on Educational Games
Marriot Metro Center, Washington DC
October 25, 2005
The Summit on Educational Games was sponsored by the Federation of American Scientists and the Entertainment Software Association. After introductory remarks by Henry Kelley (President, Federation of American Scientists), Doug Lowenstein (President, Entertainment Software Association), and Donald Thompson (Acting Assistant Director of Education and Human Resources, National Science Foundation), the keynote address – “What Do Games Offer For Learning?” – was given by Deborah Wince-Smith, President of the Council on Competitiveness. The agenda for the rest of the day is attached to the bottom of this document. The summit fielded representatives from a variety of arenas: academics, scientists, non-profit directors and project managers, government workers (including grant agencies as well as military and DOD), textbook publishers, and game designers (Odd World; Firaxis of Sid Mier’s Civilization series; BreakAway Games).
Review of Discussion
A prominent theme throughout the day highlighted both the need and the opportunity for change in the US educational system. As Wince-Smith argued in her keynote, with a global marketplace creating increasing market pressures, the primary way for the US to maintain market competitiveness is to remain at the forefront of what Alan Greenspan calls the “conceptual economy” – the economy of innovation and creativity. Most panelists throughout the day argued that the incorporation of game-like exercises as a regular component of K-12 schooling would require a radical shift in the current US education system, which has remained fairly consistent in structure (agricultural calendar, length of time at school) for several decades. As Eugene Hickok (former Deputy Secretary of Education) argued, education is the one major public social institution that has not undergone radical transformation in the past century.
The current emphasis on standards and requirements from No Child Left Behind presents several challenges to incorporating non-traditional, supplemental material in the public classroom. Furthermore, budget constraints and the competitive textbook industry (highlighted in particular by Scholastic’s VP of Technology and Development, Midian Kurland) compound this issue. Coupled with the large budget requirements that most contemporary games require (10-20 million, and on the rise), the summit’s discussions made clear that the use of educational games in the K-12 public classroom remains in the early stages of development, and would require serious investment. Several times, various constituencies argued for governmental support for Research and Development in public education; currently, there is no budget for this at all - amazing for an industry supported by millions of dollars of public money. In contrast, many corporations spend 10-12% (or more) on R&D.
At the same time, the process of learning afforded by games is encouraging in its usefulness in K-12 pedagogy: staged development and advancement, immediate reward systems (both positive and negative), and challenges based on the skill-level of the user. While more research is necessary to show effectiveness, some studies do show that learning improves when users engage in simulations [see Menn (1995); Sugrue, “Which Comes First: The Simulation or the Lecture?”; Mille, Lehman, Koedinger (1999)]. A great deal of discussion at the summit centered around transferability of knowledge from inside of the simulation to situations that are similar outside of the simulation (with lots of anecdotal discussion from education, corporate training, military training provided in the discussion periods).
Funding appears to be coming from NSF, DoD (and individual military branches, such as the Army’s “America’s Army” brand), DARPA, and occasionally (but rarely) private venture capitalists. IMLS has funded some simulation-type projects, such as “Discover Babylon,” which is being developed by the Federation of American Scientists, in collaboration with IMLS, UCLA, and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.
In summary, panelists highlighted the potential benefits, the need for further research, the need for (extensive) R&D funding, the difficulty of incorporating game technology in the public classroom, and the need for revolutionary change in our current education system to compete in the global marketplace.
Projects Highlighted
The 1pm session during lunch demonstrated four games in development for educational purposes. Breakaway Games’ Incident Commander is a simulation of emergency response for middle- and small-scale communities to practice their response techniques to events such as toxic chemical spills, train wrecks, fires, and so forth.
The University of Southern California, funded in part by DARPA, developed the Tactical Language Trainer, which is based on the UnReal Engine and uses XML and Python for language database and AI behavior. The user is placed in a 3d environment (in this case, a city in Iraq) and they must use their avatar to communicate with locals, which is facilitated using Voice Recognition software. The user thus engages in linguistic and cultural practices (by speaking and also gesturing and behaving appropriately) in order to accomplish various missions in the simulation (successfully gaining the trust of a native Iraqi by following appropriate customs, for example). The game includes a tutorial and reference material in language and culture training that directly relates to the kinds of examples found in the game itself.
Firaxis presented Civilization 4, the newest incarnation of Sid Mier’s famous strategy game. Civilization 3 has been used in several schools – one of the few computer games (like Oregon Trail) that permeated the school system. There have been studies done on the use of Civilization in the classroom (see Kurt Squire’s work). Civilization, it should be noted, does not claim to aim for historical accuracy, which they admittedly sacrifice at times in favor of gameplay. But the benefit of Civilization is in training students in critically investigating the game apparatus at the same time they are using it (thus seeing how it differs from history and historical work).
Henry Kelley highlighted Immune Attack, a project that purports to teach students about the immune system in a game-like environment. His presentation was cut short by time limitations.
In discussion, Maryland Public Television highlighted their “Research Study Field Trips” – online virtual trips about a specific topic. Tested in two Maryland public middle schools, data suggests increased achievement for students using these trips over students using traditional learning methods alone.
http://www.thinkport.org/TECHNOLOGY/TOPICS/THINKPORTNEWS/researchstudyfieldtrips.tp
Press
Inside Higher Ed wrote an article on the Summit.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/26/games
Aki Järvinen released his GameGame, a card game about making games (along the lines of the Understanding Comics meta-approach), which is available for download here. Also available for download is the following line from andrew at gta:
Good deal! I haven’t meta game this cool in a while. ha ha. what a card.
I wanted to share. You know, in case there weren't enough puns in the world.
The other big news right now seems to be Greg Costikyan's debut of Manifesto Games, a distribution and marketing company for independent game developers (Motto: "PC Gamers of the World Unite! You Have Nothing to Lose but Your Retail Chains!").
Meanwhile, two things I meant to blog last week, but never found the time (so, really, just old news to most). First of all, the characters of World of Warcraft have a plague on their hands. I think it's been mostly fixed now, but apparently characters contracted a disease during a battle with the god of blood Hakkar during an new instanced adventure (named Zul'Gurub, for those interested in specifics). The disease, a curse called Corrupted Blood, is contagious and passes to nearby characters to spread the infection. The disease escaped the confines of the instanced event and got pulled back into the towns, effectively spreading plague-like from character to character. [report from shacknews]
File that under "unintentional events resulting from complex code" (a favorite topic of mine that one day might shape up into an article: "Putting the Wi in Weird: Decoding Complexity").
The second MMORPG news bit: the September issue of PC Gamer included an article about Eve Online, in which it described how the Guiding Hand Social Club infiltrated and, after a year of careful planning, completed an enormous heist valued at about 17,000 US dollars (after converting assets from in-game currency and goods). The article is a good read (and was once online, but has since been removed). TerraNova has an old thread on the topic here.
Nintendo finally revealed their Revolution controller, the nature of which has created a great deal of speculation over the past months. Alice at Wonderland has notes from Iwata-san's speech, as well as a blurry picture of the Revolution controller. A video was posted at IGN, but it doesn't seem to be downloading [update: click here for the video, then select "watch it now" - the downloadable version (non-subscription) still seems broken, but streaming just worked for me].
update: image courtesy of 1up, who has an article on the controller.
The controller, according to descriptions, appears to be more along the lines of a remote control (one handed) that can be used in all sorts of ways - swung like a golf club or tennis racket, pointed like a flashlight, stabbed like a sword - all read in relation to your position from the screen. From Alice's transcription notes:
This controller has a Direct Pointing Device. Revolution can detect precisely which location on the screen the controller is pointing at. With this technology, you can point at a location intuitively, but Revolution can detect your distance from the screen, and the angle of your controller.
In line with their attention to innovation, Nintendo seems to be encouraging movement beyond the safe bets of franchise game development with blockbuster costs and expectations. Again, Alice's notes:
Brain Training DS had a small development team, and took advantage of the new design. 10 people, and total development, was less than 4 months! Many have been concerned that time and money and risk for next gen is too much. Nintendo wants to provide a stage on which to showcase your ideas. Nintendo is willing to help bring those ideas to life, if seeing the controller today sparks new ideas, Nintendo is ready for your proposals!
We'll see how this all pans out in the marketplace, but the success of Nintendogs and the DS certainly creates a promising atmosphere for the Revolution.
The Video-Game Novel Also Rises discusses the increasing media cross-pollination of computer game worlds. Nothing all that new, since the Halo novels don't make the shelves groan nearly so much as the Wizards of the Coast novels (of the D+D sort, for the non-geek). I just wonder - are any of these new novels really any good?
When you're in the territory of Jane Austen and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, you're expected to go deeper. You're supposed to probe the internal lives of your characters. And this is where these books become really fascinating: They're like the Us Weekly of the gaming universe.
I'm thinking no.
But the article's writer does point out a conflict that I think is already inherent in the game proper, but that is laid even more bare by the novelization of the character:
If you play a lot of games, these books can provoke a weird sort of first-person identity confusion. After all, when I play Halo, I play as the Master Chief himself. So it's passingly strange to have an author suddenly grab the emotional joystick and explain what the Chief feels -- what I feel? -- while wandering around slaughtering enemies.
Posted for the cross-sited media types...
Just a few months after releasing an expansion pack for the game, Turbine announced that they wereclosing Asheron's Call 2. I played AC2 briefly, but was turned off by the (at the time) overwhelming system requirements that brought my FrankenPuter (assembled with care, duct tape, and electricity) to a screeching halt. Although the graphics engine produced beautiful results (individual blades of grass that parted as you ran through), the gameplay was just not on par with AC1. It will be interesting to see how this affects other Turbine products - AC1, D+D Online, and Lord of the Rings Online...
What happens to the ruins of an online game?
Come to think of it, I still have the CD. Looks like they are offering a free month's play if you rejoin... might be worth a revisit for a few parting screenshots.
Sims 2 content "worse than Hot Coffee" - PC News at GameSpot
What is fascinating to me about all of these debates is that they are actually grounded (or should be) in a rather complex discussion of the nature of electronic materiality.
Meanwhile, in other news, reports reveal that by writing certain letters in a particular order in the margin of the popular novel Great Expectations, Pip and Estella actually run a crime syndicate. Investigations continue.
[not that it matters, but this isn't meant to defend Rockstar, who I think were idiots, though I find this recent attack on The Sims 2 rather silly - and amusing.]
Going through my email, I found my write-up of Henry Jenkin's talk on the Education Arcade that he gave at UMD in February. I added the report in my February archives.
Two recent Wired articles about structuring moral choices in computer games:
God Games Seek Souls, Not Profit
Christians Code Heavenly Games
The entire first year of lectures from the Games and Storytelling series, a collaboration between the University of Tampere Game
Research Lab, University of Art and Design Helsinki, and two company
partners, Veikkaus and Nokia. More information available at http://gamesandstorytelling.net/
During my lunch break yesterday, I dashed across the Mall to see the Asian Games exhibit at the Sackler Gallery, which is sponsored in part by my employer (an article on Asian Games was featured in the July/August 2004 Humanities Magazine).
The exhibit is split into four sections (see the webpage above for some images and a Flash-driven online gallery). Chance looks at dice games, early forms of Snakes & Ladders, pachisi (what we know as Parcheesi), including some absolutely beautiful pachisi pieces. The Snakes & Ladders game boards were wonderful examples of teaching ethics and culture through games, as each board emphasized a culturally-appropriate morality in climbing ladders - and vice in the snakes. The exhibit includes a board (on paper) specific to Islam, where the images were removed (in an aversion to iconography) and only words describing virtues and vices led to a heavenly temple of some sort at the top of the board.
The Strategy section displayed games like chess, weiqi (go), and backgammon. Many of the chess sets are elaborately beautiful, ranging from the Elephants and Viziers from India (where chess originated in the 6th century) to the Kings and Queens later used in England. By this time, I was rushing to get back, but managed to sprint through the remaining two sections. Matching and Memory included cards, dominos, mahjong, and other matching games, such as a Japanese shell game that had the first lines of a poem on one shell, and the last lines on another. This assumes, of course, that you know the hundred or so poems in the collection. The final section, Power and Dexterity, looked at sports like polo and kickball (not the playground type). In all sections, displays of actual games are coupled with images of actual game play, emphasizing how common and influential games were in the various Asian cultures.
The exhibit closes May 15, so you only have a few days left. For those of you who are interested, but can't make the trip to DC, you should consider purchasing the 325-page Asian Games Exhibit Catalogue, which is a huge, gorgeous book that is on sale for $9.99 (normally $45). You can't beat that.
Interesting story on slash-dot. The comic Apostasy isn't bad.
Nearly six months since its release, Half-Life 2 is not only making ripples for its being a great game, but also for the works being made from the game itself. Garry's Mod (aka GMod) is a extremely popular and fun "sandbox" modification for Half-Life 2, that allows you to play with the game's exceptional physics engine as well as pose characters, create Rube Goldberg-type devices and other physics phun inside of HL2. Taking advantage of GMod's character posing, the compelling and professionally produced Apostasy is an online comic that follows 3 characters from the HL2 universe and is interwoven within and around the game's original narrative.
David Jaffe, game director for God Of War, apparently has a blog. For future reading.
Fargo: So I was on my honeymoon when ICO landed at the GameSpy offices. I came back and everyone was talking about it in dreamy, hushed tones -- you'd think someone had just shown Citizen Kane to a bunch of film students.
Well, I guess that answers this question. ;-)
Because, for whatever reason, ebr is a building I get lost in, where I can never find an exit (or, at least, the path I want), I just found Aarseth's follow-up to his First Person article.
Once I read through it, I may update my own thoughts on "Genre Trouble." And, for reference, the entire ludology thread.
Gamespot: "Everything is Possible": Inside the Mind of Gaming's Master Storytellers. Interviews with Chris Avellone (Planescape: Torment), Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Series), Ken Levine (Freedom Force), Tim Schafer (Grim Fandango), and Ragnar Tørnquist (The Longest Journey).
The Chronicle of Higher Education's "First Person" column is being written by a team of game studies researchers trying to garner a dual hire so they can continue their collaborative work. Judd Ruggill and Ken McAllister lead the Learning Games Initiative. Unfortunately, a subscription is required to read the articles:
Game for Anything
A Couple of Rare Birds
Team Job Interviews
Andrew Stern, over at GTA, puts forward a comment made during his panel discussion at GDC this year:
One of the comments that came out during the panel discussion Why Isn’t the Game Industry Making Interactive Stories is that the game industry has yet to reach its "Citizen Kane moment". This is the idea or hope that at some point someone will finally create a game that uses the medium in such radically new ways that it uncovers a new grammar of expression, and in the process reaches new artistic heights.
Like Andrew, I too have always found the analogy of early Hollywood cinema (CK is no Lumiere Bros production, after all) to games rather suspect, though I suppose useful in its own limited ways. The thing is, I think we *do* have a grammar of game expression and one that specifically incorporates elements of storytelling even (at least, that's what my dissertation is arguing), but because of bad implementation in a lot of games, the sheer *number* of games, the advances in technology that splits games into very different generations, and an industry that perhaps harbors even more control than early cinema ever did, it's rather tough to separate the wheat from the chaff. Toss in there the fact that we still operate with fairly limited understanding of game genre (or, I should say, genres), and the fact that we tend to view games and stories as binaries rather than components of the same part (when story is involved), and I'd say its not surprising that we find ourselves at a loss for a single defining moment.
And let us not forget that Citizen Kane enjoys at least part of its enormous prestige because of the multiple academic and popular voices that declare it so. Canon formation, be it in film, literature, or games, for all its limitations and problems, is also a useful filtering process. I suspect that as we all continue to understand, critique, debate, and teach a critical theory of games, we'll see how the waves (as Andrew so finely put it) crash together to form certain peaks.
mark's reference to Fable’s disappointment as both game and story, despite the hype (in the GTA comments), in fact, reminded me of one of my favorite publication histories, documented by Lawrence Rainey in his article "The Price of Modernism: Reconsidering the Publication of The Waste Land" (The Yale Review 78 Winter 1989: 279-30). T.S. Eliot had already planned to publish The Waste Land in his own Criterion, but he was looking for an American venue as well. Ezra Pound tried to convince The Dial to purchase the poem, and he argued that The Waste Land was “the justification of ‘the movement’ of our modern experiment, since 1900” (Rainey 282). Initially, the Dial only offered their usual $150, which Eliot thought too little. Eventually, and through no small measure of effort on the part of Pound, The Dial decided that they wanted the poem. In recompense, “they would offer Eliot the second annual Dial Award in confidence as the price of the poem, while officially they would pay only the $150 which had been their original offer" (Rainey 291). Rainey points out:
Literary history records few spectacles so curious or so touching as that of the two editors of a major review offering a figure nearly three times the national income per capita—in 1986 terms, the same ratio would yield over $40,000—for a poem which neither had seen or read. (Rainey 291, emphasis mine)
After offering such a substantial award for a poem, the editor of the American publishing magazine found it “disappointing on first reading.” That’s right. They paid that much, for something they hadn’t even seen, and, upon reading, didn’t much care for. Marketing, even in high literary circles, is an amazing thing.
In any case, this desire for a Citizen Kane moment reminds me too much of the "games that make you cry" quest ... Interesting, since the sentimental was for many years both feminized and disdained in literary circles (and, one might argue, still often is, despite valid attempts to recoup the term). Aren't there other ways we can frame successful emotional moments in games outside of either some sort of Rosebud moment or an appeal to the Old Yeller factor? Can't we point to foundational games - ones that really introduced a new element of play, style, or integrated story? I'm pretty sure we could all name a few.... some that even alter the way we encounter some games as stories. I know that some have taken a stab at creating a canon, of sorts (see the attempts by both Costik and Juul), but I wonder what we'd put together if we did focus on a very limited canon? For the first-person sneaker, would you choose Metal Gear, or Thief, or a later title? Why? Tetris seems an obvious choice over many other games, both for its foundational gameplay and because it's 'publication' history is ripe for discussions of copyright and the industry, but I'm sure arguments could be made for others.
What would a very narrow canon - say, twenty titles that you would teach in an Introduction to Computer Game Studies class - look like?
Michael Feir is an avid gamer. He spent so much time playing games in college he created his own online gaming magazine. But Feir doesn't play the best-selling games and has never seen World of Warcraft -- he's blind.It doesn't matter. A growing library of computer games has been built specially for blind gamers, using sound instead of visuals to let players know what's going on around them.
This Wired article is about audio gameplay. It just makes you wonder how this style of play might permeate the traditional "video" game. Wouldn't audiogames be a great idea for mobile phone gaming?