Combining physical and digital worlds is one of the major trends in games evolution currently, and you can see it happening in the physical gaming, movement sensing and location aware mobile gaming, for example. One of the things that we have been researching in the IPerG EU games project is combining board games with digital layers or functionalities (in work package headed by Interactive Institute in Sweden), and it was interesting to have a look at the ‘Entertaible’ concept by Philips. See: the project home page, and a video.
Category: game studies
anything games, games research related
The Video Game Revolution: "Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked" by Henry Jenkins | PBS
Tired of facing the same old myths about games being the direct cause for real-world violence, about the antisocial nature of game playing, of digital games being a child’s plaything? Well, Henry Jenkins of all people must be, but still he continues to set things right. Please check out his column “Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked” in PBS.org.
MGS User Research – Downloadable Talks
For anyone interested in researching gameplay experience, there is much of interest in the download area of MS Game Studio’s User Research.
the horde is evil?
Ted Castronova has an interesting post in Terra Nova, titled “The Horde Is Evil”. To summarise shortly, he claims that we cannot wipe out the age-old associations of evil imagery, and thereby to engage in World of Warcraft activities as an Orc or Undead character is not simply an aesthetic choice, but also an ethical one.
I have been doing my fair deal of study of the evil and the demonic imagery (see Demon 2005), and basically I agree with Ted: to adopt some of the clearly ‘chthonic’ (underworld) imagery in a game does mean getting involved with the antisocial or ethical associations these traditions carry with them. The age-old stories, our mythical heritage, is crafted from a human perspective, and creatures who kill, mangle and eat human flesh are the traditional opponents of everything hold as good, acceptable, or indeed, human.
But engaging with stories of evil, or with fantastic game worlds with evil characters, is not the same thing, as exploring such evil in one’s own life. We know the difference, and even if engagements with fictional “evils” become more and more complex as the realities we inhabit become multiple and their ‘reality-values’ relative rather than absolute, we just need to learn how to negotiate the consequences of one’s in-game choices, as much as we need to recognize different contexts of life in other daily arenas. And I know that becoming a Horde or Alliance character is currently by no means a neutral choice for many people: some dislike the other alternative for clear, ethical-aesthetic reasons. (In D&D, these choices in character selection were related to two axis, the good-evil [altruistic-sadistic], and lawful-chaotic [systematic/orderly-hedonistic/associative] ones. The Horde-Alliance dichotomy seems to be carrying the echoes of both axis.)
puzzle ball game
Ravensburger has created this transgressive concept: puzzle ball of the globe. If puzzle is no game (Crawford), then at least you can use it, ball game, puzzle and some education, all wrapped in one.
wow group101
Interested in the gameplay strategy issues, I came across this flash “101” strategy guide into WoW group dynamics. Any other interesting ones out there?
fantasy season in WoW?
Now, during the Christmas period, there is of course an excellent opportunity to open that thick fantasy novel, and spend relaxing evenings, long into the night, immersed in an adventure. Or, then you can also spend also those precious moments by grinding in WoW. 
This night was actually rather fun, thanks to Aludra and Siedga who helped my poor old Dur Ût-Thure to get along in the hard road of saintly paladinhood. And the full moon is always perfect in the virtual world. I wonder how those weather effects will change the situation in the extension release? In any case, it will be a hard choice: an entertaining book, or entertaining adventure with your friends are both good ways to spend your holidays, even if very different ones. 
player-centred game design (pcd.. pcgd?)
I noticed T.L.Taylor posted this note about Olli Sotamaa’s and our team’s paper in DAC into Terra Nova (her last there, btw, pity), and discussed player-centred game design also more generally. There appears to be several interesting developments in this area, both in research world, and within the industry, but we also have to remember what are the realities particularly of the smaller studios and focus on how to make the player-centric processes also more designer-friendly. But I am a firm believer in PCD philosophy: only by hearing real people out there (rather than only following our own tastes and instincts) can we see the culture of gaming facing some real fundamental changes.
mobile games' challenges
Every games market has its challenges, but making downloadable games succeed in those thousands of versions you need to produce from every single title aimed for today’s fragmented global phone and operator market is perhaps even more challenging than some. Jami Laes from Sumea/Digital Chocolate spoke today in G&S series, emphasizing that mobile is its own medium. Design needs to understand ‘casual’ as easy approachability for any phone user, mobile as the “social computer”.
demographies of the "active gamer"
If you are interested in the recent news on how the gamer demographies are widening, and mobile games playing gradually becoming more common, take a look at this BusinessWeek story of couple Nielsen Entertainment reports.
frans goes blog 
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