It looks like we have a bound book date for Critical Play, Mary Flanagan’s new book! The time is now! watch for it.
Eric Zimmerman says, “In Critical Play, Flanagan uncovers a secret history of games buried deep inside folk culture, experimental media, and the world of art. Critical Play should be required reading for anyone who cares about the cultural importance and future potential of games.”
Tiltfactor says, “HURRAY!” and is exited to launch the book.
Look what we’ve done to Hanover!
<the mobile unit PLAYCUBE in action>
The PLAYCUBE, our unique mobile exhibition space, has been home to two events since its arrival on campus last week– and these have been entirely unusual + much fun! We’ve attracted an interesting cross section of students, faculty, staff, and community members; the most compelling aspect of the project thus far for me is the way in which the mobile unit attracts curious passersby to engage with creative ideas– and especially those who might not frequent arts events or a museum.
The unit is equipped for flat panel video display, wireless video display collection, gaming units, sound, and projection. It is meant to travel around Dartmouth/Hanover area for interdisciplinary investigations and events. Anyone can propose a show-event-tinyConcert-performance-game jam-etc. to the curatorial team! Events run several hours to several days. The PLAYCUBE was brainchild of the experimental Tiltfactor Laboratory (http://www.tiltfactor.org) and commissioned by the Neukom Institute and the Leslie Center for the Humanities, Dartmouth College.
A video of the opening event sponsored with Dartmouth’s AREA arts group last week is documented on youtube, in which students showed computer based arts and hosted a band:
The silent disco party is 1st August at BEMA (after dark), complete with live dj from the CUBE playing to wireless headsets in the crowd. Direct questions to playcube at dartmouth edu.
www.jesperjuul.com
gambit.mit.edu
Juul believes that there’s something missing from academic game studies.
We are beginning to understand that games are not static artifacts. Games are dynamically created and changed by the players who engage with them and the cultures within which they are played. Each play session is a completely different experience with different motivating factors and very different meanings.
Games can be:
-rule based systems that you master
- fictional worlds that you imagine
- social phenomena that you play with other people
- self-expressions that show who you are.
And there are this many different types of “meanings” at play in video games because 1) there is no authority for interpretation and 2) games are fundamentally ambiguous. Their experiences are re-authored with every iteration, with every player.
Check out local news footage here. Seven people were arrested at a war protest in Northeast Philadelphia this early May at a $12 million military gaming center at a mall which uses simulators (a-la America’s Army) to lure in potential soldiers at age 13 and up.
So far the center has recruited twice as efficiently as rival, non-digital centers.
“War is not a game!” “You can’t simulate the heat. You can’t you know the cries of people who are getting killed. You can’t simulate the noise when things are exploding around you,” said Jesse Hamilton, an Iraq War Veteran who served in the Army.
The Army Experience Center presents the teenagers with video games in hopes that they might learn about life in the military. At least the Army believes games to be be educational!
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UPDATE: Joe DeLappe of Dead in Iraq fame has produced a website for America’s Diplomat, the America’s Army replacement. Check it out here: America’s Diplomat
Yesterday, thousands of New Yorkers received a morning jolt before even having their first sip of coffee. Volunteers around the city handed out free copies of a Special Edition New York Times that announced the Iraq War was over, a maximum wage law was passed, new federal spending would spread bike lanes across the nation, and dozens of other liberal fantasies. And, for the moral gamers out there, one headline read, “Popular “America’s Army” Video Game, Recruiting Tool Cancelled.” There’s even a fake NYT website to accompany the paper. You can go here and read the article, or in case the site’s owners receive a cease and desist order, we’ll reprint the article in full.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Defense announced yesterday the cancellation of its highly successful and popular “America’s Army” online game and recruitment tool. The program has already been converted into a new game, operated by the State Department, entitled “America’s Diplomat.” State Department spokesperson Donald Demsfold called this “a pretty good step towards nurturing a generation committed to the principles of diplomacy and peaceful negotiation.”
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I am, I admit, a gloomy person, who spends a lot of time looking at the worst of the world. I am often saved, however, and made a little more hopeful, by the weirdness, creativity, and enthusiasm of kids. Today, in the midst of the financial storm clouds gathering around us, I was able to see some light at a meeting of the Connecticut Innovations Academy (CTIA).
Every year, the Center for 21st Century Skills organizes an Innovation Challenge to bring together Connecticut teens from urban and suburban neighborhoods to collaborate on high tech projects. Last year, the Challenge was to build a video game in MIT’s Scratch program, and build a whole mock company, website, white paper, and marketing campaign to support it. The winners put together a great educational game, but participants complained that they didn’t have enough game design education. This year, the Challenge is basically the same except all game designs will be about environmental issues, organizational kinks have been worked out, and they have dozens of Grow A Game to help spark young imaginations. I went to the program’s first meeting this year to talk to 130-odd students about designing games with values in mind.
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I love Massively Multiplayer Soba because it is simple and it works. In an academic paper, I might say the game explores tolerance and diversity by facilitating inter-cultural exchanges around regional cuisine. But really, Soba just gets strangers talking about food. We live in a country flayed by partisan divides, with too much time spent thinking about trivial differences. Even in New York where people from all over live side by side, it’s rare for us to take the time to interact with each other. But games give people excuses to be extroverts. And food is a universal passion. With Soba, we give strangers an excuse to discuss commonalities, and the results are just good.
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