game studies – Page 52 – frans goes blog

summer flus, again

My ISP, Saunalahti, did us all a favour and upgraded (with no extra cost) customer connections to higher speed combos. All nice, except the upgrade messed up with the way my (and many others) ADSL router (Zyxel Prestige 660 series) behaves. So, my first holiday week has been spent in summer flu, calling Saunalahti customer service half a dozen times, trying to get the connection working so that I could do some urgent jobs to the new DiGRA site. Oh well – at least the weekend looks nice (and I have the Half-Life 2
collectors edition also installed 😉

"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.)

Vancouver

Tried to post this earlier, but battery ran out in Vancouver night. DiGRA’05 is now over, and it is time to reflect. I am interested in any feedback, either here in the newly re-released http://www.digra.org (you can freely create an account there for yourself, do take a try). I am tired, but it appears that the conference fulfilled at least most of the goals we set for it, which is great.

GDC'05 presentation videos

Finally, there is the Spore presentation by Will Wright in video available at the 2005 Game Developers Conference website. You might also be interested in Nicole Lazzaro’s presentation. See the GDCTV page.

next DiGRA board canditates

There is now call for canditates into the next DiGRA executive board, 2006-2008 in http://www.digra.org (see forums). Please check it out. – Writing this from Juha Herkman’s PhD thesis defence (picture below); these are major academic events and “tribal gatherings” in Finland, don’t know so much what is their role in other coutries. This one is both fun and illuminating; also political. Tomorrow Copenhagen (www.nordes.org).

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?

supercomputers/consoles for homes?

The news of the x-generation consoles are inevitably swamping us all. I have been reading Kotaku’s info on Xbox 360 and BBC story on PS3 – the feelings altenating between fascination and weariness. There are clealy many goodies heading to our direction, but the exact need and sales-point of these investments is still slighly escaping me. I am an addict, so I will probably get these all, and have even more problems setting them up in my living room, but what about rest of the world. Have you already set your eyes on some particular future device? Why?

Bristol in pics

I got rest of the pictures from DiGRA Futures and Playful Subjects into the net too; see link.

DiGRA futures

After too busy a week, a great seminar cluster in Bristol; the DiGRA Futures and Playful Subjects seminars. Jussi and Marinka find modern art hard to handle.