Group items tagged

I don't have much experience with video games (I still rock out with Sonic on my Sega Genesis), but this could be a gateway game for me. I love the concept of adapting and crossing lines of genres and mediums, but it's interesting to note some of the dramatic differences and losses that must take place in translation. In this example there are some real game changers (I'm not sorry for the pun) involving plot and narrative. It's as if Dante has suddenly been inspired by Mario and must save the princess from the castle. I wonder what the equivalent of Yoshi would look like in the 7th ring of Hell...

This is the social networking homepage of a online gaming website, IGN. I wanted to share this because it seems to overtly combine the gaming and social elements of social media. It also, similar to the AXE site, allows users to follow certain products and claim an identity based on what products the user owns in comparison to other members of the community. Within the site itself members have some level of gaining badges and competing by listing and comparing their games and interacting with each other. Also, on the level of competition, there are prizes available for different interactions on this site which further invokes the sense of gaming and competition.

This group is briefly mentioned in the chapter on Pranks in this week's reading. The fired game designer for the SIms helicopter game left and joined this group-- pretty much pranksters of an online nature. While it has little to do with video games, it has everything to do with ethos in an Internet age.

A really awesome example of gaming on a giant scale. Also marks an interesting intersection of where hacking meets productivity, or breaking with positive outcomes.

Response to Kellee Santiago from Roger Ebert as he sticks to his guns claiming that video games still aren't art.

On "casual" games and their addictiveness

Interesting idea from Bogost. Although he labels it as game art, I might consider this a multimedia piece as the code itself, the process of "re-soldering" and essentially rebuilding the game cartridge, and then the finished project performed online with DIY functionality seems much more complex than the book describes. Personally I think it's a brilliant but I'm not sure I know what (if anything) it means...

Bogost's game study. Lots to play here.

I know the semester has come to a close, but I still thought this was an interesting article that ties in with our last section on video games.

Along with Zork, here are a few other interactive fiction games. I played Lost Pig for a while.

An article about Jonathan Blow, creator of Braid. His game is featured in the first chapter of Bogost's book ("Art") as an example of a proceduralist game.

Art games by Jason Rohrer

Hush, empathy in Rwanda.

Artist uses webcam feed and gps focused on Fifth Avenue NYC to create corresponding cars in Frogger game. So where does the real car end and the Frogger smashing begin...?

I thought this might be interesting, especially as we head toward the section of the class where we discuss games. Here is an excerpt from the default blurb: "Victor has worked on experimental UI concepts at Apple and also created the interactive data graphics for Al Gore's book, Our Choice. In the talk Victor showed off a demo of a great real-time game editor that makes your existing coding tools look primitive at best."

McLuhan and Bogart would probably enjoy this article because it involves procedural rhetoric. It examines how "gamification strategies"--using games to change behavior in real life--can promote energy efficiency. Companies like SimpleEnergy are creating apps that let users track their energy usage, find ways to improve, and compete with friends and neighbors for spots on a leaderboard. Gamification succeeds because apparently social pressure can motivate people even more than monetary incentives, and these initiatives combine both types of incentives: An energy usage competition at the University of Hawaii led to some dorms cutting energy usage by up to 20 percent. This specific method also allows users to save money and conserve energy without "radical infrastructure changes" or the corruption and waste that often results from government subsidies to politically-connected "green" companies like Solyndra and possibly Sapphire Energy. In addition, the apps provide large-scale energy usage data that researchers can use to measure both change over time and the impact of energy usage on other variables.

Unique TED talk from Kellee Santiago who claims that Roger Ebert's claim that video games can't be art is wrong.

Empathy

Bogost talking with Stephen Colbert. Nation, this man believes video games aren't just for wasting time.

This is the article I referenced in class regarding exercise....