Heh, this video (that Valve’s Steam offered us) literally “kicks ass” — it is so great to see people taking the medium, ranning away into some crazy direction and just having plain old fun. See: RagDoll KungFu video (an indy game familiar from the GDC).
Category: digital culture
Johnson on the us gta controversy
There would be so much to write about the ways in which the relative “harmfullness” of sexual and violent in-game representations are framed by some in the US, but I just want to point to the short piece Steven Johnson recently wrote, as an open letter to Hillary Clinton: Hillary vs. the Xbox: Game over.
If you want to read some more around the “GTA Sex Mod Frenzy”, take first a look at the links collected by Jason Della Rocca
in his blog.
facade release
Oh yes, they have finally made it into an official release; Andrew Stern and Michael Mateas have provided Façade, a “one-act interactive drama” as a whopping 800 megabyte BitTorrent download. Good to see academic games research being applied in practise! See the Procedural Arts Press Release.
chinese online addicts get the cure
Hm. Seems that the Chinese officials are getting rather experimental in curing the net/game addiction problem – administering electric pulses and intravenous medication, wow. See the AP story in CNN.com and elsewhere.
"everygame" online
Another interesting research tool, everyvideogame.com has loads of classic (and then, perhaps some not-so-classic) videogames available in teeny emulation versions. Worth taking a look at least (thanks Gonzalo for this tip).
games adverts archive
If you are interested in the mentalities and culture surrounding digital games, and their history, you might take a look at the archive of video game ads available in the gamepressure site. (Streaming did not work for me, but they have also download option for those video files.)
the incredible expanding [shrinking] games universe (and then some garlic)
After doing some overtime again with a load of student papers, DiGRA conference reviews and some book project reviews, and so on and so forth, I find myself in bed with a flu – just as the sun and temperature outside tell that summer really is approaching also these sub-arctic regions. Well, good time to eat piles of garlic and travel around the blogosphere.
There are the stars of Finnish game design, guys from Remedy Entertainment reappearing to show off their forthcoming “psychological action thriller” Alan Wake; see link and an interview in Gamecloud; link. The emphasis seems to be on atmospheric visual design, and it surely seems pretty – but it is too early to say much more.
E3 news are all over the place and they appear to be mostly about new tech, consoles, tie-ins, sequels, the usual suspects. The word “Revolution” seems to mean just the name of Nintendo next-gen console these days rather than any forward step in actual games design (let alone some social or cultural transformations, god forbid). (On wildly jamesjoycean gesture of associative thought, this brings to my mind that there is now an EA website for Spore, the game concept Will Wright hyped in GDC and E3, as explained in this GameSpy report.) In the Guardian Gamesblog, Aleks Krotoski speculates on a line of Nintendo press release about the option that Revolution will be open also for indie games designers and bedroom coders. This would indeed be an exciting option and this kind of window of opportunity for alternative games content entire industry and games culture needs right now. But wait and be disappointed? Gizmodo link shows why you probably will be. (Links: Guardian link (based on note by Boing Boing, followed by the Gizmodo cold shower: link). But then, there is also the good press Nintendo is getting from making Revolution to run the entire history of Nintendo console games, see link. Promising or not?
mayday, cold and grey
This May Day was one of the cold and grey ones: freezing temperatures outside, not much to do expect play games, write articles for a Finnish horror bibliography project I got involved with, eat some. The photos I took outside pretty much tell it all. Saw Magnolia (the movie) finally. Liked it. Fun part is, that after seeing my preferences, Movielens gives as the top recommendation for me now The Princess Bride. 🙂 (PS – Blogger makes life again difficult – it is pain to get anything published via their service any more. Pity…)
connected to star wars?
The flash map Wired has produced on the links into and around Star Wars movies is illuminating, especially as you start thinking about all the connections (e.g. games) they have not included in it. Seems we are all connected to SW, and is that just reflection on the overall ‘condition of connectedness’ we all live in? Story: How Star Wars Changed the World.
elegy to consoles of the past
gamegrrl advance had this link to funny and touching video, lovingly designed to pay homage to the consoles of the past, fighting against the rising dominion of PSP-type ‘convergence device’. Oh dear… Someone can really love these old pieces of plastic. (Choose: New Game in the start.)
frans goes blog 
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