Group items tagged

Hard science on the importance of play for human development. How are games and play different? What are the categories of play? Can video games give us the same result as play? Should we have a category of "video toys" separate from "video games"? If we move toward video game education we need to make sure play is a portion of that education.

subtitle: "Interactive educational games that are collaborative and focus on 'social good' can boost girls' participation, experts say"

This is a good follow-up to our discussion last night regarding how schools are trying to incorporate gaming to make them more relevant/engaging... subtitle of article is "Interactive educational games that are collaborative and focus on 'social good' can boost girls' participation, experts say."

Recently there's been chatter that Valve - the company behind the massively popular gaming service Steam - has been considering getting into the hardware business. Specifically, there have been rumors that the company has been toying with the idea of creating a proper set-top console which could potentially pose a threat to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

This is an interesting development. Console games have been the domain of the "Big Three" for years (XBox, Playstation, and Nintendo). Now, another player is threatening to break into the market. Steam is a digital distribution service with over 40 million active users. Users install the Steam software and then purchase and play various computer games through the Steam interface. When I was helping to develop an indie game a few years ago, it was considered a huge accomplishment to be listed on Steam. It boosted the game's exposure and user base significantly. It will be interesting to see if the console is released and how it fairs in the difficult-to-enter market.

What do you think will be the WAAAAAY OF THE FUUUUTUUURREEE: educational games or creating lesson plans around mainstream games (the better question may be, how these things will manifest)?

Schooling is already a game. Point systems, frequent feedback, rewards. The first step is to recognize that. Second step is to use technology to implement on smaller scales, by which I mean minute to minute instead of week to week or semester to semester(which we see here). Honestly it is done already in kindergarden with the stars on the board acting as a leaderboard. I am confused as to why that is abandoned after graduating to 3rd or 4th grade(we "grow out" of one of the best forms of motivation?!). Gamifying schools is a matter of refinement not overhaul. The question to me is what should be rewarded.

a blog with discussion of emotional depth in games and "art games"

Games On The Brain By RPS on January 24th, 2013 at 3:00 pm. The relationship between gaming and depression tend to only be addressed by sensational misinterpretation of studies by the mainstream press.

I met this company out at CES in Vegas this past January. They have some really exciting and dynamic technology on the horizons and I think that this is the route gaming is going to go. It would be really interesting to discuss what we believe will happen to gaming when the content is able to catch up to the technology.

An in depth look at the guy who penned the entire overarching narrative of the Assassin's Creed series. More importantly, an article pointing at the growing need and want of storytellers for the design of games. Good stuff! 

big gaming conference in Boston early April: on how Boston is a "hub for gaming industry"

article on board game design in yesterday's paper

about an exhibit at the Smithsonian on "video games as serious works of art" (March 16 - Sept. 30)

here's the game that uses the memory palace as a way to structure the game

got this from Jordan's tweet

on a tweetchat with other Games MOOC students

open-source platform for creating and playing mobile games, tours, and interactive stories....

"There's an amazing amount of innovation just waiting under the surface for us to tackle - and yes, perhaps violence will be some part of it; we are no simple beings. But we as a self-aware species of gamer - and game developer - can evolve to a more varied diet as a start; a one-course feast of blood and shell casings can perhaps sing its last with this generation and never return, a relic, discarded as the cyanide trappings of our adolescent industry and its hopefully brief era of strip mining for the social soul."

This week, we explain why settling on a story before you've started your game may be a bad idea. Come discuss this topic in the forums ! -I don't know if I agree with all of this, but it's good to think about.

My first semester thesis in Jane's theory class was focused on Transmedia storytelling and how The Hunger Games was poised to be a successful transmedia campaign. Often mistaken for marketing ploys (which yes, some are) I predicted that this was going to happen. Needless to say Jane didn't really agree and gave me a B - however, here we are moving forward in the Hunger Game's series and oh - what's this? Immortalizing the characters and making the Hunger Games' actually come to life. I know we aren't up to Transmedia yet but I wanted to share this because transmedia storytelling is a huge topic and one that I will continuously aim to explore here at Emerson.