Why Mass Effect is the Most Important Science Fiction Universe of Our Generation - 4 views
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The value of Mass Effect as a science fiction universe is that it is a critical starting point for discussion about the purpose of humanity in a materialistic universe. Without an answer to that question, there is no real reason for Ender to defeat the Buggers, or for humanity to seek out new life and new civilizations, or for us to not let non-organic life be the torch bearer for intelligence in the universe. Mass Effect confronts us with a female hero of our own creating, with the deepest implications of diversity, with the most dramatic questioning of the value of what it means to be human. Whether you are a feminist, a transhumanist, a theologist, a proponent of space exploration, a pacifist, a human exceptionalist, a bioethicist, a scientist, or a philosopher, Mass Effect demands you rethink your world.
Using Civ IV in class - 3 views
Affective or Effective? War Child's Gamefication of Conflict Experience | Duck of Minerva - 6 views
How a Civilization V mod makes corruption the least of FIFA's Problems - Kill Screen - ... - 1 views
flgaming / FrontPage - 0 views
Participation Nation - 2 views
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Tracy Fullerton's project with USC's Interactive Media Division. "The prototype focuses on the constitutional crisis surrounding school integration in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. A set of webisodes and a graphic novel provide the background story of this crisis, while the central "Debate Game" asks players to use the people, laws and values from the era to support two out of three points of the argument for or against school integration, addressing questions like "Should the federal government intervene?", "Is media coverage swaying public opinion?", and "Are civil rights woth risking a constitutional crisis?" Players can take the side of the "Forces of Change" or the "Status Quo" in debate over the constitutional issues that shaped the country."
Gamers make faster decisions than nongamers, just as accurate - 4 views
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Maybe we should aggregate stories like this, to be ready to show people.
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no, no, "gamersgoodmkay" is perfect.
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I like it!
M/C Journal: "Artificial Intelligence" - 0 views
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Within twenty-four hours of the sensationalistic news breaking, however, a group of Battlefield 2 fans was crowing about the idiocy of reporters. The game play footage wasn’t from a high-tech modification of the software by Islamic extremists; it had been posted on a Planet Battlefield forum the previous December of 2005 by a game fan who had cut together regular game play with a Bush remix and a parody snippet of the soundtrack from the 2004 hit comedy film Team America. The voice describing the Black Hawk helicopters was the voice of Trey Parker of South Park cartoon fame, and – much to Parker’s amusement – even the mention of “goats screaming” did not clue spectators in to the fact of a comic source.
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The man behind the “SonicJihad” pseudonym turned out to be a twenty-five-year-old hospital administrator named Samir, and what reporters and representatives saw was nothing more exotic than game play from an add-on expansion pack of Battlefield 2, which – like other versions of the game – allows first-person shooter play from the position of the opponent as a standard feature. While SonicJihad initially joined his fellow gamers in ridiculing the mainstream media, he also expressed astonishment and outrage about a larger politics of reception. In one interview he argued that the media illiteracy of Reuters potentially enabled a whole series of category errors, in which harmless gamers could be demonised as terrorists.
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a self-identified “parody” video was shown to the august House Intelligence Committee by a team of well-paid “experts” from the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a major contractor with the federal government, as key evidence of terrorist recruitment techniques and abuse of digital networks. Moreover, this story of media illiteracy unfolded in the context of a fundamental Constitutional debate about domestic surveillance via communications technology and the further regulation of digital content by lawmakers. Furthermore, the transcripts of the actual hearing showed that much more than simple gullibility or technological ignorance was in play.
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Excessive internet use linked to depression, research shows | Technology | guardian.co.uk - 0 views
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a small proportion of internet users were classed as internet addicts and that people in this group were more likely to be depressed than non-addicted users.
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The mean age of the 18 internet addicts, 13 of whom were male and five female, was 18.3 years.
Teaching Students How to Fail: Simulations as Tools of Explanation. Brent E. Sasley. 20... - 2 views
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Instead of always teaching students how to succeed—as is the norm in higher education—it might also be useful to teach them about failure. Understanding failure (that is, why actors fail to reach common objectives in inter-group settings) gives students deeper insight into how to resolve global problems, and the conditions under which success can be achieved. This enhances student awareness of complexity in world affairs, including the nature of inter-group relations. Simulations are a good way to teach students about the possibility of failure, and how to learn from it, because they allow students to go through the learning process on their own. In this article I discuss how a simulation I ran on Middle Eastern politics can be used as an example of how to instruct students about failure as much as about success.
Postings of a Troubled Mind - WSJ.com - 2 views
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At times, Mr. Loughner seemed to be reaching out to fellow gamers for help and advice, albeit in a disturbing way. Sometimes they offered it, such as giving him pointers about job hunting. At other times, his postings seemed so outrageous that the gamers mocked or ignored him. The online postings, written using pseudonyms, were shared with the Journal by a person who had access to them. Two fellow gamers who participated in the online forums say the author was the accused gunman, and some of the postings discuss incidents from Mr. Loughner's life that others have corroborated.
Anti Somalian Piracy, crowdsourcing game - 1 views
Gamification has issues, but they aren't the ones everyone focuses on - O'Reilly Radar - 1 views
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Via James Schirmer on Buzz. As I commented there: This is quite sensible. Since I do want to dismantle capitalism, I don't agree with that bit. More subtly, I am concerned about the entrenchment of simplistic binary thinking in western, particularly US, culture, so "Game designers often like to see an epic battle between good and evil - even where there isn't one - but that's part of the charm" - for me that's a significant drawback. To the extent that a game includes an argument about how the world is or how the world should be, then reinforcing oversimplification (rather than the simplification necessary in any model of the/a world, be it a book, movie, academic article or game) is problematic. I like my myths/theories/stories multifaceted.
Ian Bogost - Gamification is Bullshit - 4 views
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gamification is marketing bullshit, invented by consultants as a means to capture the wild, coveted beast that is videogames and to domesticate it for use in the grey, hopeless wasteland of big business, where bullshit already reigns anyway
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The title of this symposium shorthands these points for me: the slogan "For the Win," accompanied by a turgid budgetary arrow and a tumescent rocket, suggesting the inevitable priapism this powerful pill will bring about—a Viagra for engagement dysfunction, engorgement guaranteed for up to one fiscal quarter.
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I realize that using games earnestly would mean changing the very operation of most businesses. For those whose goal is to clock out at 5pm having matched the strategy and performance of your competitors, I understand that mediocrity's lips are seductive because they are willing.
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via Kirk Battle on Buzz
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I have no inside knowledge. But I suspect his irritation increases in proportion to the hype. The tone here is caustic, but the content is on the money. If you agree with him, and if you love games and their potential, you can understand the rage, I think.
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I don't know -- rage, really? Isn't the "games vs. gamification" tack ultimately more of a both/and thing than a conflict? I'm not sure why having gamification exist necessarily entails an undermining of what games are. I suppose there's the question of educating non-gamers on the great potential of actual games, and perhaps policing a boundary between the two concepts. But just as I don't really want the local police to become enraged when I cross a line, I find this kind of response (and again, I've seen Bogost do it far better and with greater restraint elsewhere) off-putting to say the least. One comment on his post referred to Bogost's "war" against gamification; I'm just not sure that's the most productive approach to addressing its rise.
Reacting to the Past - 4 views
Agreed. That last, Bryan, can be an excellent way to draw non-"gamer" folks into game principles and design, too. This looks cool; passing it along to my historian colleague.
started by edremy on 27 Jul 11
2 follow-ups, last by Brett Boessen on 28 Jul 11
Erik Hanson liked it
EteRNA - 1 views
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